Empty Netters Podcast - It’s Time For A Friday Mess Around w/ TJ Oshie and Erin Ambrose

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

TJ Oshie and Tim Kalinowski join on the morning of game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final to breakdown the Habs chances of survival, if the Canes are for real, and if anyone can take down Vegas. Erin Ambrose drops by to dish about the Victoire Walter Cup Championship and the party that ensued. And the boys get into some fun topics on the Free For All Friday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Come on. Ice is ready. And we're back with another episode of the Empty Nerds podcast, live edition. It's a free for all Friday, folks. We are fucking around today talking a bunch of shop about a bunch of nothing. This is the Seinfeld episode of the Empty Netters podcast because, folks, we didn't have a game last night. And we already previewed the game today on Wednesday's episode with Alec Martinez. So today, we are just kicking it. and CP might be dead.

Oh. In the arms of an angel. A wounded puppy. I shouldn't be here. I'm not supposed to be here. I don't believe that I should be here right now. You don't think so? No.

No one deserves this. I don't deserve this. You certainly don't. You are too good of a guy for this. You are too good of a guy. Do you think that hangovers are all mental. No.

What about, what if they are? How about that? Do you ever think about it that way? Ask my toilet. Well, I think when you are having an expulsion from both ends, it's because mentally you gave up. You could have woken up that day and gone like this.

I am not hung over. Do you, well, when you're younger that work, have you heard that myth, liquor before beer, you're in the clear? Yeah, I don't think it's a myth. It's not true. That's 100% It's 100% I think it's real

But you know why Everyone thinks it's like This chemical combination The reality is they're just going Liquor hits you mysteriously Beer You're drinking beer You slowly get drunker

If you're fucking smoking cocktails All of a sudden you blink And you're like wait am I blackout And if you do that in the reverse Because if you're drinking beer And you're slowly getting drunker and drunker And you're like Oh yeah

Like I'm pretty tipsy And then you're already tipsy and then you switch to cocktails. That's how you get blacked. That's true. But I'm saying as far as sickness goes, like, I will say, I think it's a variety that does it. I don't know that the order is really what makes you feel hungover, at least. Like, if I have wine, liquor, and beer in one night, I'm like Chris. You're dead.

Yeah. Mixing is definitely an issue. I think it is chemical. I think if you have... Just stop. I think if you have... Hey, hey. A nap.

Dude, just take a nap. Set this one out. Set this one out. It's fine. You get sicker. You have full permission to just not do anything today. Just sleep. Go to sleep.

We'll take care of it. He'll be like Stephen Wright on the couch and half-baked. Yeah. Oh, my God. What a fucking character. Guy on the couch, dude. What a great movie. What a great movie.

I'm surprised you've seen that, Zach. Half-baked? Yeah. Oh, no. I'm everything, Chappelle on then on. Zach hasn't seen half-baked? No, I have seen that. I've been there. I've seen it.

Zach is, Zach's 15 years old. Yeah. Poor C's seen it. I was dropped off here today. Yeah, it's got a P.B&J and at lunch, too. Yeah, exactly. You know what? We were talking about this right before we started recording.

Zach, you would be an interesting person to test subject this with because I don't even know if your generation watches movies other than you. You are pretty good about it. I do watch movies, yeah. Do you ever get caught in the streaming Doom Scroll of like, all right, time to figure out what we're watching? And then you just spend hours scrolling all the time. Yeah. Yeah. You just sit there.

I mean, I feel like I've been doing that. My generation has definitely been doing that their whole life with their parents do, where they're like, they're watching their parents go through that experience. And then you're also like chiming in, hey, we should watch this. We should watch. Yeah, yeah. It drags it out. And then the sex thing comes on. your parents sit.

You know, you know what we need. You know what we need. When I was a kid, you had to choose your movie at a video store. Oh my God, dude. Like, waiting for you to get out of the fucking store. Netflix needs to, like, pop up like a little, like, video store guy. And he's like, all right, you got five minutes to, like, close the shop. Pick your movie.

A tremendous idea. That is a great. That is a tremendous idea. Ed. You know what I, so I am a, I'm a huge IMDB guy. Oh, yeah. Love. You have IMDB pro?

No. Get on it. So you're not that big of an IMDB. Go back to sleep, dude. You bet your ass I have IMD pro. Yes. The IMDB pro. I have two things to say about IMD.

Number one, do not trust any review sites that exist other than IMDB. IMDB is not even a review site, but they have a ranking. And it is the most accurate ranking in the world. So many of these shows. and movies come out and they're like these new shows come out and they're ranked 99 on rotten tomatoes and the reality is they fucking suck they just have a rabid fan base that goes on and jerks off to it and they give it a 100% and because that's the only thing you can do it's either fresh or rotten and it's like this is the dumbest it's so binary it's so binary it's so stupid we need a

one to 10 with decimals or one to 100 and that's how it works and not what letterboxes though Letterbox is really good actually, too. Absolutely. Good point. And that's for centipiles too. Yeah, the one thing I take umbrage with with letterbox is whenever you see those red carpets and we've talked about this on the show. Maybe not. I don't think we've talked about this on the show, but stop it.

Not yet. Whenever we see like a red carpet and it cuts to a celebrity and it's like, hey, letterbox top four and they're like, oh my God, letterbox top four. I knew this was going to happen. I'm not prepared at all. Okay, my top four. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. And they just start saying these fucking ridiculous, and I'm like, shut up, dude.

Those are not your four favorite movies. Just be honest. Be authentic and real. Tell the fucking truth. Say your favorite movies are fucking Caddyshack, and I'll be like, that is a real human being. And the odd moment, when an actor really does that

and gives their actual top four, I'm like, I fucking love this. person. Yeah. I love this person because they're being legit. Like Emma Stone is like she's hers is I'm pretty sure hers is perfect. It's like she was like, um, I fucking love, uh, Wally and finding, and I was like, yes. Wally's the best Pixar movie.

I think we are living Wally. Dude. We're getting there. We're getting there, baby. Hey, dude, chill out. It's Friday. Yeah, we're supposed to have fun, not depressed. Um, but anyway.

IMDB ranking system. Well, like, sometimes they're like a 6.5 on IMDB is actually a good movie. Okay, Evan. But it's like, it feels like, I can't believe you just said that number. Mid-movie.

I believe firmly, with movies, 6.5 and higher, obviously, good, good to go. Like, if I look something up and I'm like, oh, I should, I'm going to watch this movie. If it's a 6.5,

I will enjoy it. Oh, yeah. Below that, we start getting in a gray area. Unless it's comedy, because sometimes comedy just does not get the respect it deserves. Yeah.

Like Celtic Pride. You ever see Celtic Pride? Absolute blast. Great movie. Great comedy that like everybody shits on and every time I watch that movie I'm like, what are,

Celtic Pride is great. Dan Aykroy, Damon Waynes? Incredible. My number one reference I always make is, uh, McGruber. I believe McGruber's like a 5.7.

McGruber should be a 9 point. What a fucking great. McGruber is the most chaotically fun comedy of all times. I bet Hot Rod is below 6.52 and I'm like those movies are great. TV is 7.5 and higher and it's good.

It's great. But I bring up IMDB to say what they do now that is very special is if you look up a movie on IMDB it will tell you where it is streaming. Yeah.

So instead of falling into the streaming spin zone where you're like, I'm just scrolling and that next scene, you know, an hour goes by, I feel like you got to have the conversation of like, what are we in the move for? What do we want to watch? You figure out the movie, then you look it up, find out where it's streaming, and then you open the app. Yeah. Because then you don't get in the day.

You don't get stuck. Yeah. I think that they should also, like, release good stuff on Blu-ray. Like, I would love for, like, if something's only available on Netflix or, like, Apple, Apple TV and I'm like I only want to watch that one fucking movie I'm not gonna sign up for a month of Apple TV Yeah fucking release it on Blu-ray take my $20 Oh that's like there you go do you mean He means DVDs back in music

He means DVDs dude do you mean a physical DVD? Yeah I mean a physical of a disc Do you what do you have the means to play a DVD? I do I have a Blu-ray player Are you surprised by that at all? Evan probably you I let me guess you have a record player problem too. I have a record player. I have a VHS player. And a VCR. I have a 1985 TV.

You have a VCR. I have a VCR. Come on. I have a bunch. Yeah, because at Christmas, this is what I do for Christmas. Hold on, hold on,

hold on. Here, in L.A. Yes, let me explain it. At Christmas, I have a Christmas party called Old Timey Christmas, and there's only VHS,

old classic Christmas movies playing because I wanted to feel like Christmas when you're a kid. So we have like all the old, like, Rankin and Bass, claymations playing. on the H.S, the Santa Claus on VHS, like, records going. Because, like, flat screens in a living room kind of, like, ruin it for me.

I'm like, you're ruining the illusion of my old-timey fun Christmas. Now, hold on. Are those VHS is playing just during the party, or, like, do you wake up and be like this, like, a video story and you, like, put in? No, I do not watch VHS on the reg. Do you think that there is a notable different? between popping on Home Alone on Disney Plus versus putting the VHS in? Yes.

If you grew up... One works and the other one jumps in after you don't get to watch it. No, I'll tell you. It's like the nostalgic, warm feeling of CRT TV that makes you, puts you in that mode. Like sometimes a really high-res movie is not the first way I watched it. Yeah, I mean, that's true. So watching it again, the way I watched it when I watched it.

was, you know, 10. Yeah. Has that, and that's really specifically for Christmas I do it. Sure. But, like, there are some movies you can only find on VHS.

I got to say when we were in Milan for the Olympics, that we fell in love with this pizza shop around the corner. Yeah. And they had one of those teeny little TVs that had the VCR in the TV. Yeah.

And they had a collection of, like, old school, classic 90s action movies, like Air Force One, Heat, Casino. Under siege. It was awesome. And it was cool.

Like you put it in those kind of like the grainy shit would go on. I was like, it's like, this is cool. That's cool. Well, that's becoming a thing with my generation. They have these like bars. Like the high five bars,

obviously musically, but there's all these like the video stores are coming back. I know there's a bunch in L.A. There was some in Atlanta. Here. And there's a ton of bars too. There's a ton of bars that have VHS players and like, they're like dive bars.

Yeah. It's like fun. Yeah, it's a thing now. And then the other thing too is that's a thing to have, Like, it's a big thing on TikTok to get one of these old TVs and have, like, a kitchen TV and have it playing shit like that all the time. But this is fully back. It's, okay.

You're, we're talking VHS. Yeah. First movie that comes to mind when you think VHS. Evan. Um, and dumber. Zach. Uh, VHS first movie that comes to mind. I'm trying to remember the first movie I watched on VHS.

I think it was casino. I think it was casino and then casino real. Great. Whoa. Wow. Crazy combination. Yeah. Got stuck on the seat.

Yeah. He was in the C-section. Chris. Fuck you, dude. That's mine. You're such a fucking loser. Is it two or one? Two, yeah.

Mine's one. Okay, mine's one. And you know it's my second? The thing that comes to mine second? Titanic, the two part. Oh, that's a good answer. My second is cool running. Whoa.

Like, okay, for example, I'm on this Jim Carrey thing, but like Ace Ventura, the VHS came with a fucking pet detective card in it, and I wanted that fucking card so bad. It did? Dude, yes. It came with like, you know the card he has on the front? Like, that came with it. That is fucking awesome. That's the kind of shit you don't get anymore. Yeah, correct. Dude, when I'm fucking streaming. Why aren't they mailing me pet detective cards? Zach? Do we want to take this one step deeper? Wait, hold on. Will you send me the Zoom link?

Yeah. Because I'm going to send it to Tim. I can already tell you, we will talk about this forever. And I want to talk about this forever. But we got to bring our friend Tim on. And we got to we've got to talk some hockey before we get out of control. Yes. Let me, I'll send it to you again. I was going to say real quick while I'm sending you this link though. I think if we want to go deeper on this,

you know how like obviously vintage stuff is back, vintage movie apparel's back, all that stuff? Are the people just yearning for physical media, like memorabilia attached to the things that they watch? dude yes absolutely and evan you're so right like the all that shit used to be so awesome remember when you like you'd go to a movie and there was like a little knick-knack they'd give out or or like you'd go to fucking McDonald's and there was like the fucking toys from we need to be getting happy meals dude Evan i remember so distinctly i went to see wild wild west starring will smith kevin

Kevin Klein and Kenneth Branagh. Are you talking about the sunglasses from Burger King? The sunglasses from Burger King. I was like so desperate for those when those came out. And then also that movie is not inappropriate at all. None of that ages poorly. It's a perfect film. It's really fine.

Salma Hayek is absolutely dropped-de-gorgeous in that movie. It's unbelievable. I rocked those sunglasses as a kid and I was an overweight, like, chubby middle schooler with those sunglasses on. but let me guess let me guess those sunglasses made you feel unbelievable did you find your AirPod

Yeah I'm good Okay Uh Are we ready to bring Tim on? Is Tim in? Tim is in Let's get Timmy on All right

I'm gonna throw him on Give me a moment Oh wait actually Give me two seconds here Take as much time as you need It's so bright in here Can we turn the lights down? Folks we're gonna bring in our pal

Tim Kalanowski Timmy takes Snapback Sports I think I can hear him Tim, can you hear me? No, you can't hear it. No, you can't hear me. Yeah, not yet.

Give me like two seconds. I gave you a new thing so we get. Man, this is, I don't think I've ever been more excited for an episode in my life based on where that conversation was going, guys. We're going to get, we're going to get Tim in here for a little hockey talk, and then we're going to get right back to it, and we're going to just keep chopping it up. We're going to bring Ocean here. Aaron, there's Tim. Tim, can you hear me? fellas.

I can't hear you guys yet. Oh, wait, I can hear you. He can't hear us yet. I can't hear you guys yet. Hold on one second. I don't know what I did. I don't know what you did. They should be able to hear us now.

Tim, can hear us now? I still can't hear you guys. Really good start. Still can't hear us. Still can't hear us. Oh, now I got you. There he is. All right, we can hear you perfectly.

Dude, what's going on, brother? Nothing much. It's, yeah, free fall Friday, off the rails Friday, whatever you want to call it. I got a good vibe, man. I got a good vibe. Wow, that is so special. We were just talking about VHS's in the old days. And I got the question for you.

When you think about VHS, what is the first movie that comes to mind? Yeah, so I was cheating because I got to watch you guys. That's okay. I was thinking. But my dad had the alien trilogy on VHS. and really good answer and they were like he had him in the you know in the trilogy little box in itself and i remember thinking the covers were so scary dude like i don't even go near it terrified yeah yeah don't open it don't open it what's crazy tim first of all fantastic answer we our dad had like a

little cupboard in our living room that all the VHSs were in and you bet your ass alien was in there and you are right sir the cover of alien was fucking horrifying. Yeah. And I was like, I will never watch that movie. And then when I was eight, he was like, you bet your ass you will. And it scarred me for life. Dude, in a good thing.

Actually, this is about to incriminate my dad. I don't want my dad to go to jail. Send him to jail. Should I not say that? Send him to jail, dude. When we were little, dude, my dad would go to the video store, which was like people's video. Yeah. Because we didn't have a blockbuster near us.

We'd go to the video store. and then my dad would put in the VHS that we rented. We'd watch it. But then he would also put a blank VHS in in the VCR next to it and record it. Yeah, he would pirate movies. We had a whole drawer to him of Pirated. I was like, what are you getting at? And now I'm remembering.

And he would put a little piece of white tape on it and just write like alien. You know, so we had every movie ever. He did pirate movies. I didn't even see the covers because I just saw the white tape. That's all we ever had. And now our dad's in jail. Now the FBI is going to, now the FBI. Tim, are you in Boston right now?

Right outside Boston. Yeah, I do the thing that's from Boston, not, you know, north of Boston. Yeah, dude, I trust me. Where exactly, Tim? Marblehead, a little coastal town. Fuck, yes, dude. That's incredible. Well, I mean, we're from York Beach, dude.

So we're kind of like a suburb of Boston as well. it's a it's a similar vibe and dan did you did you go to and over yeah buddy and he went to exeter so you're in good company yeah i got my little exeter mug right here i have that mug too dude all right so we we want we're going to get all into snapback sports and and the takes and all that but what give us like a quick rundown of of what you're up to what like all your sports takes all your hockey knowledge and are you pulling for anyone in these playoffs or are you just enjoying the ride? I guess I'm just enjoying the ride. I just want more games. I just want I want everything to go the distance. You know, for us, it's funny like at Snapback. We, the thesis is to find the best

experience in sports. So, you know, college football is our main thing during the fall because you can, you can keep exploring that forever and never, you know, like you can go division three, you can go FCS, like, so that's like super fun. You can never really run out. But the hockey stuff, like I'm a hockey guy. And when I first joined Snapback, I thought I was going to have to drop my hockey. Like I just assumed, you know, football is king, whatever. And so I grew up a huge hockey fan, played hockey.

And the first thing I pitched last year was four nations. And so the bosses were like, oh, you know, and I was like, I think this is going to be a big deal. Because remember we all were kind of like, what's the vibe going to be? Are they going to go balls to the wall? Yes, dude. And so I wanted to go to that game in Montreal,

but it was kind of too late. We couldn't make it happen. But then, you know, the second they dropped the mitts in that first 10 seconds, the bosses were like, uh, you're going to the fucking final. So why weren't, why weren't we there?

I'm like, yeah, no shit, guys. Welcome. Dude, that is so, we, you're absolutely right. We had the same. I mean, like, we went, we kind of blew the whole thing out, but we had the same conversations with our bosses where they were like, what is this?

Is this going to be cool? And we were like, this is going to be so huge for the sport. You guys don't, and like everyone was kind of like, yeah, whatever. Same exact reaction. It was like, we were getting blown up with texts from our friends being like, is anyone watching Four Nations? And we were in Bell Center.

And I was like, I'm here, pal. Like, I'm in the 12th road. This is the most insane thing of all time. It was, it was awesome. And then like from there, they were, like, not that they weren't hockey fans, but, you know, maybe they had gone away or, you know, but they were like all in. And then, you know, there was something about, then we did like a mini little playoff tour after that. And I actually saw you guys in Edmonton. Remember that?

Yes, sir. Ran into you guys there at the mall. So then we just kind of like, it's so weird. The hockey, like the hockey market for content seems to be like so underserved. Yeah, dude. in many ways. Like, we go to a college football weekend, you know, we go to Nebraska and we get a facility tour, we talk to the quarterback, whatever.

And then like, they're like, okay, yeah, well, at 1.30, the next group of YouTubers are coming in. And then at 1230, you know, ESPN's coming in. So see you later. And then the hockey stuff, it's like, you know, you seem like you're the only show there at times. And so I love it. It's so true, man.

What is the coolest thing you've been to? It doesn't need to be hockey. because I love how Snapbacks, like, looking for the coolest experience. Yes. What is the, actually, give me all-time coolest and then most surprising coolest, because I love that you're doing like D3 football and shit like that, too. So this year, the national championship for football, seeing Indiana win was super cool. And we were on the sidelines, nice, you know.

Not a big deal. Yeah. And Mendoza made that run. like 20 y' like i was on the goal line pretty much when he made that run yeah um and i was standing next to ray lewis and michael phelps which like you know the three of us the greatest group of athletes of all time the three best friends that anyone's ever had yeah what a what a combo yeah so so that was that was crazy just to be like you know and and too i'd been to national championships and stuff.

And like to see Ohio State win again or Alabama, it's like, okay, yeah, yeah. But like to be there going, I will forever say that I watched Indiana, freaking Indiana win a national championship, two feet in front of me. That was super special. So cool. Yeah, it's surprising. I don't know if there's too many surprises. I'm kind of, I guess I'm kind of like desensitized to it all.

But we went to Brookings, South Dakota for South Dakota State. And that was like one of the best trips we've ever had. It was exactly like out of a postcard. Like there's one street of like the mom and pop diner. Like you could go breakfast, lunch, dinner, the same place. Yeah. And then three bars. Like, and that's all I need.

Yep. And like the diners say like they have signs up in the window that's like closed at the game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good surprising answer. Like I would have not expected South Dakota would have such a. just sick vibe, but that's a blast. I love that. So sick. And it's, it's funny too because, like, we, we've figured it out. Like, the big thing, like, the algorithms take care of so much of the legwork, like, these days. Like, we, you're going to go to South Dakota. So you start talking about it on Tuesday, Wednesday, and then you show up Thursday. And the people there,

I mean, the population's like, oh, 2000 or whatever. And then by the time you're there, people think you're freaking Pat McAfee. They're like, I've been seeing you on my, on my feed, on my thing. They're like, they're like, how did you get there? Like, how are you on my feet? I'm like, are you interested in South Dakota State football? They're like, yeah. I'm like, well, that I was talking about South Dakota State football. So yeah, that.

Do you know a competition? Do you know how an algorithm works? Because I promise you, I'm at the tip top of it right now. That's unbelievable. So what have you been doing during the Stanley Cup playoffs here other than, you know, just watching and enjoying? Yeah, I did. So I did.

I've been, I don't know, maybe. 10 games so far in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So we just keep kind of like build it. We did like a mini tour. I went to five games in eight days. We did like so I've just, I've just been traveling like crazy. And again,

it's working like the numbers are doing well. The YouTube is doing well. So then I come like, we get off of a trip and the boss is like, you know what? People are talking about Anaheim. Should we go to Anaheim? I'm like, dude,

I have nothing going on now. Let's go to Anahehan. that's been the deal. Dude, Honda is pretty sick vibe, right? I was going to say, isn't that a blast? Being here on the West Coast, like we always love boosting up some of the West and Southern teams and their arenas and like Honda is a vibe.

You, I feel so conflicted at times because, like, I want to give them love, but I also don't want it to be like the performative, like hockey can exist here. Like, of course it can exist there. Like, if you, like, what player, wouldn't want to live in Southern Calais. I guess Trevor Zekrist didn't enjoy it.

But, you know. Seasonal depression, dude. You know what I mean? Like, are you kidding me? Like, who wouldn't want that to be their lifestyle? So I feel like, you know, we're kind of over that in a sense. Like, I hate having to do this like, you know, this hockey like land recognition that's like, it can exist in different climates.

Like, look at every Stanley Cup winner the last whatever amount of years and it seems like it will continue with Carolina or Vegas, right? Like that's for guys want to play. Yeah, yeah, exactly. We were just talking about that. Yeah, I mean, that's spot on. Tim, I saw, you, we feel this too in a big way where you're like, it's hard to be a fan of the team you grew up rooting for just because you do this job and you know, you're,

you love the game, right? But I saw that you said your first words were Joe Sackick, which is incredible. Yep. I just, I wanted to know you're about your abs origin. and if deep down somewhere, it is still devastating to see them get swept by Vegas in the Western Carpets Finals. Yeah. So I was born in Vail and we lived there for like three years. But that was during the height of, you know, their run, you know, Ray Bork and all that.

Like my dad's like you, you were, you know, with the with the mini sticks as they handed the cup to Ray Bork. So I don't really remember any of it. But I did have this little Joe, Josacic, like figurine. So I just knew, like, I would say like Patrick, I would say Patrick, Joe Sackick. Like, that's like all, I would just run around and say Joe Sackick, Joe Sackick. And my dad had season tickets to the Rockies, Avs and Broncos back when like that was like an affordable endeavor. And so when we moved, though, that was like, you know, early 2000s, you had to have like the real center ice package. So my dad kind of fell out of the. Avalanche thing. And so it was it was Bruins, I guess. But like I always say, it's like I grew up a Bruins fan, but I'm such a loser. Like I always thought that I would be like a real journalist like writing column.

I thought that was going to be Elliott Friedman. Yeah. So in like when I was 14, you know, like not like really yeah, everyone else. Dude, honestly, Tim, that's sick. Like, good for you. that you knew that. So like, you didn't go through that brutal realization

of being a hockey player and being like, fuck, I'm not going to play forever. What I do now? At 14, you were like, dude,

I'm going to be a fucking journo. This is great. I was like, I was like, I got to play games in the show just so I can be on TV. Yeah. That's the only reason

I was looking to extend to the career. Yeah. Didn't play in the show. But so I was like, okay, what's the other route? You know, again,

the LA Freeman route. So I, I kind of like, had thought you had to like, I thought I had to beat out of me my like fandom. Now that's so different like so many of the guys on, you know, that we see on national TV, like you will say, hey, I'm a group of devils man. So like it's totally changed now, but I thought I had to lose that. So I kind of trained myself to kind of lose a lot of the Boston fandom.

It also helps to see all your teams win, right? By the time you're like 16. So, so then, but I root for the Bruins just because I want them to continue to go, I'll go on runs because it's more fun when my buddies are all in it for a playoff run. There's nothing better than when your life becomes when the team's playing and when the team's not playing. Yeah. That's the best part. Yeah.

So true. Oh, my God. That is the most real thing ever. And dude, I think it's cool too. Obviously, you cover everything. You're not just like a local thing. but I've heard like Mike Reese, like Patriots beatwriters be like, I got, I became a mainstream name because the Pats were so good.

Yeah, for sure. You know, so it's actually cool. I actually think it's beneficial when your local teams are good when you're doing this job because you're like sick. I'm in the mixer here. Yeah. 100%. And I am a miserable prick who does like when it gets scandalous and the teams are like in a rut

or losing. like it's so like I enjoy bashing the Red Sox right now like it's so fun like I can't help myself I don't realize I don't think of myself as as a macele until I leave Massachusetts and then you go somewhere else and they're like oh well uh family park school I'm like fuck family park fuck the red sox fuck everything yeah what dude that is so real we were actually uh we were watching the game last night and uh fucking who was it uh weissert came in and walked fucking two straight guys loaded the bases and then gave up a grand slam to a cunea

and we were like we were hooting and hollering we were like great fucking job buddy way to go and it's like that's more active that I've been watching a Red Sox game than I have all season and it was something bad so it's just like so real it's such a brutal feeling I'm not afraid to say that I

I like to just feel emotions whether it's the highest or the lowest I just like to feel dude Tim we I think the most excited we get about hockey. Like we always, like, you've seen it with, like, we'll get on Twitter. We'll get on the Instagram and we start talking about drama season. And it's like whenever drama is going on and obviously, hopefully not anything really bad,

but like trade talks or there's turmoil in a locker room. I'm always like, yes, feed me. This is, this is amazing. Like right now I can't, I cannot see enough Edmonton Oilers trade rumors because I'm like, yes, dude, give me, let me see it. Let's go. I put it like this because I'm upset. obsessed with the Maple Leafs, right?

Like, I listen to Kipper and Borny every day. Like, I read the Toronto Star, the Sun. Like, I love, I'm obsessed with the theater of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And, you know, when you get in the conversation of, like, you know, the media too hard on them, like, no one wants to play there, all this. I just like to think, I go, in our little silo of the NHL, it's like, oh, my God, the torturous Toronto media, think about, like, it's not like Stephen A. Smith leads first take with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Austin Matthews. Like, the, in our little scope, it's so tiny. Think of it.

I'm like, think of the NFL. Think of, like, how big, like, Dak Prescott trade rumors get or something like that. We're like, we're like actually ignites entire North America. Like, you know what I mean? It's so funny because it's like, they're so mean. They're so tough. And it's like, again, it's just like our little patch here. It's like our little, you know, it's like a, it's a needle point. It's stunning. How small hockey is. Did you see the Sun article that came out the other day about, that was like

Mitch Martyr can't stop thinking about the, the maple leaves or what, like, it was like, talking about him, like, fist pumping, going to the cup and they're like, he's making about Toronto. And I was like, this is, it feels, it read like an onion article. I asked someone to, I asked someone to buy me a hard copy of it and send it. That is amazing. Can I frame this, please, and memorialize it forever?

They did that epic one after the Olympics with Matthews, remember? Yeah. It was like, like, our captain puts partying over playoffs. Yeah, it's like, calm down. Jesus Christ. Do you, would you say hockey is your favorite sport? Yes. College football is close, but yeah, hockey is, it's also just because I think just the hockey

community is so easy. Like, you know, there's so many guys that doesn't matter what level you played, where you played. Like, you can smell a hockey guide from, you know, a mile away. Like, I always joke of my buddies, we go to the bar and that girl came up and they're like, oh, like, hockey players. My buddy's like, dude, how did they know? I'm like, five backwards hats and Lulu Lemon, man. Like, what do you think? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it's like truly we're cartoon characters who wear the same outfit every episode. It's unbelievable. Tim, even though you're not, you know, officially a Bruins fan or anything, you grew up in that Boston area. So it was easy to pick those big four teams, right?

Like Southwings, um, socks, uh, Pat's. Uh, but college football also growing up in New England, that's not really big, right? Like, that was such a new thing as we were growing up and getting to college and stuff. Do you have a college football team you gravitate towards or do you really just, just love the whole scope? Yeah. So my mom played tennis at Clemson. So, So Clemson grew up, Clemson fandom, all that. And so that is the last thing that I really will be a diehard fan over and not be able to not be able to function on a game day, ruin, ruin a week, ruin a month, ruin a year. And in elation on the other side.

So like, yeah, the Clemson thing to me is that would be my identity probably first is like, Clemson. Okay. That's sick. Oh, dude. I mean, you hate that. Well, yeah, but it's like... Chris is a Duke guy. So I went to, yeah. So it's like there's a lot of ACC action, but we, we have two of our dear buddies, their wives went there. So like, they're, I got a big Clemson thing in my orbit, you know. But you're so right, dude, it is awesome just having a, having a competitive coach football team because it just makes the fall. It's so good, dude. Saturdays is all time. I'm addicted to, like, one thing still, and it's just, like, the anxiety before a big game. Yeah.

Like, there is nothing that gets me like that. Like, I coached high school hockey for a little bit as an assistant for, you know, a couple years ago. And, like, just walking on to the back. Like, even, like, even in our, like, no one's going anywhere and no one's playing anywhere. But you go, you walk out to that bench, packed student section. Yeah, yeah. fellas are taking warmies and I'm like, oh, I literally think I'm Marty Sainterweight. I'm not the suit on, I'm chomping the gom. I'm like, this is on. Dude,

Wolf of Wall Street. God, God. God bless you. I, I mean, that sounds awesome. I, I feel like I've lost the fire of fandom. Like, I talk all the time on this show of like, fandom is so fucking insane and psychotic now. And there's a part of me that's like, I think I emptied the tank too early in my life. And now, like, when I think about getting fired, like the Red Sox. Like obviously they suck right now. But when something comes on that I love, I'm like, I'm tired, boss. I got nothing in me. But speaking of the playoffs, or no, go, go, go. Yeah, I was going to say real quick, I tell my, I tell my, I tell my Leafs friends all the time, that they're like, you know, oh my God, the suffering to this, I go, it is going to be so great.

Like, you will never like cover or be intrigued in a team at a better time. Like that, like, again, I think there's a part of like when the Cubs finally won, when the Red Sox kind of won, that it was like, a lot of things changed. Yeah. Benway used to be borderline dangerous. And now people are like, I'm going to wear my Yankees jersey to Fenway. Do you think I'll be okay? I'm like, it's a fucking joke, dude.

It's legit tourist club. Go wear your fucking. Yeah. That's actually a very good point. Yeah, because the Leafs fans want that cup so bad. And when they get it someday, they will. enjoy it. It'll be awesome. I mean,

trust me, winning is sick. Leaves games are already a fucking country club. It's like they're so expensive and the lower bowl certainly is like a business conference. But you're so right. I'm just saying,

enjoy the chase. Enjoy the teams. We always, right guys? We love the chase. Enjoy the fucking chase. If Edmonton ever gets it, I mean,

God, like you said, you were there. Hey, Connor, match you there. Enjoy it. Well,

well, Well, it's, it's, I'm talking like the, there is still that rabid dog vibe at Rogers and in Edmonton. And if and when they get their cup with Connor, I, it will, it will be different. It'll be, it'll be relaxed. It won't be psycho anymore. And I totally, I actually forgot about that. Like, when we were young going to Sox games at Fenway, it was like, it was dangerous. Like, it was hardcore, like, gritty Boston fans.

And then we won a few World Series. And everyone was just like, oh, yeah, now it's like a ton of. rich-ass people here and we got it's fucking date night it's date night it is yeah a lot of pink hats it's true unbelievable our uncle is a huge socks guy he calls it Disneyland North because he's like yeah I can go to your amusement park there's a great video of this Liverpool guy like years ago talking about how Liverpool changed and he's like we're just a fucking tortoise club it's just a total I know the exact video you're talking about it's funny yeah he's like he's like you come here with a selfie stick have a pint then you leave

the half and I'm like that is literally family. Yes. It's exactly. My sweet Caroline, take your picture. Yes. All right. Tim, as we wrap up here, getting into the Stanley Cup playoffs here, A, do you think Montreal has a chance or are they out of gas?

And then B, do you think either of these teams can take down Vegas? I fully think Montreal is out of gas. The biggest thing I keep pointing to with people going, how is this happening? like I don't understand. I just keep pulling up the time on ice. And Montreal just can't play. They cannot play their full roster. Like you just go, you know, you look at like,

it was like Doc and Texier and a couple of their other defensemen. They're under like eight minutes in game four, you know. It just, they do not have the horses. And that's okay. They're still a little, they're ahead of schedule, I would say, in their, in their ascension. So in Carolina, they just come out here. Every guy is, everyone plays 17 minutes, and aside from their defensemen, but 17 minutes of their

best effort. And that's where you look at to me, like a Hudson turnover in overtime. I'm not saying, oh my God, well, you know, Hudson, what a butcher. I'm like, that guy's just worn down. They're on the ice, the whole freaking game. And he's taking hits. And it just, I think it just wore on them. So they need, unfortunately, just they're out of gas and they don't have the horses. And then In terms of the Stanley Cup final outlook, I think that Carolina can certainly beat Vegas. They'll be favored. And yeah, I mean, Vegas right now, the way that they set up that new, they're going to, they dared Colorado to dump and go get it.

Carolina is okay with that. So I think that that will be, you know, immovable force object, whatever the saying is, that it'll be an exciting one. I think you're right, man. And it's like, listen, Carolina, we've been talking about the ghosts exist of the Eastern Conference Final and they got to finish the job. I think they very much should finish the job tonight because, like, you don't even want to give this a chance of getting a little sticky. But if they do win, I think people are sleeping on Carolina's chances. Like, I think everyone's kind of like, oh, yeah, whatever, Carolina, Vegas beat Colorado. No one's going to beat them. I think Carolina is going to put up a really good fight. I really do. those would have been the two best goalies, right? Yeah. The playoffs so far.

So that's, you know, that's the difference maker. I just want to see, I mean, sure, they dropped that game one to Montreal, but I think in the room they could chalk that up as the rust, right? Yeah. I want them to, I want to see what it looks like when they actually have their back against the wall. Because if you think about it, it's really been two months without any test. Yeah. So, you know, what happens when Vegas frustrates the hell out of you, right?

So that's the only kind of thing. And Freddie has his demons. Like when does Freddie have to really, really, you know, protect the one goal lead or stand on his head in a tight game? Like that will be the thing for me that is that just not that they can't do it. It's just kind of been a while since you've been tested. So true, man. So true. No, excellent point.

I think going down 1-0 was at least something. But 100%, dude, there has been no stress, no stress in that room for a long time. Even in the playoff chase in the Met. Yeah. It was not a conversation. I mean, there was definitely stress after game one of this series. That was not nothing. Yeah.

But you know they can chalk that up in the room to like, hey, we've been off, right? Like, at least there was an explanation for sure. Absolutely. That's for sure, true. And like, yeah, if they win tonight, I mean, they're probably going like, dude, that was a joke for us. Like, we were fine, which is kind of crazy to think about. All right, dude, where, tell everyone.

where they can find you, what you're doing. And also, like, are we going to see you at the final? Yes. I'm going to game one. Fuck you. Fucking right. All right. We will see you there.

You guys are going to be there? Yeah. We'll be there for sure. We'll get you on again. And we'll chop it up. But tell everyone where they can find you and what you're doing for the next few weeks here. So you can find me, uh, Timmy Cal 12 on Twitter. Timmy takes on Instagram.

Timmy K, I think, on TikTok. And then Snapback Sports. all across that as well. That's our YouTube channel. You know, like, subscribe, all that, really fun stuff. And after game one, I am kind of doing summer hours. But we are, okay. We have someone else taking over World Cup,

and I'm just going to go play golf and tennis. And, you know, hopefully get down to a single-digit cap by August and then college football. There we go, dude. Are you not a footy guy? Are you not going to dial into the World Cup at all? I kind of care. I don't really. I need to just go away. I've been, I think I did a hundred and ten thousand miles this past calendar year. 40 weekends on the road. I'm like, I'm on fumes. I need to go

away. We can relate. We can relate. You deserve it. Like, just get on the golf course and unplug for a bit, for sure. But we will, uh, we will see you in likely Carolina, but we'll see. Um, but dude, Thank you for popping on. We've got to get you on here more often, especially during this final run here. But it's fucking great to chat with you, dude. We'll chop it up again soon. You guys are great. I appreciate it.

I do nothing. I have zero things going on. So to make it a habit. Let's do it. I fucking love it. All right. We'll talk to you soon. Peace, guys.

Thank you. Later, brother. That is insane travel. Oh, my God. I thought we traveled a lot. I was just thinking of that. Tim actually might. have us be. Oh, he does, bro.

Did he just say 40 weekends on the road? Good Lord Almighty. What a legend. That has been a long time coming. I've been, we obviously as Tim said, we met in Edmonton and we've just been like going back and forth chatting on Twitter forever. And he's so, if you're not following

Tim on Twitter, he just said, let me make sure I got it right, but I mean, you can just like look up his name, you'll find him on Twitter. But he's so fucking funny on Twitter. And like the way he the way he gives it to like he'll he he had one the other day it was like he said something about the game and someone was like oh that's not how hockey works and he just replied with the classic

like oh thanks man i'm unfamiliar with hockey i'm actually just new to the sport yeah it's just like such a good chirp it's so fucking funny i absolutely love it but he's the man we're going to get him on more um all right we're going to bring on our dear friend zach you ready is gonna yeah i just i just told her to pop in so aaron will we'll be popping in we're gonna bring in Aaron right now walter cup champ here's the question do you think erin is hungover i hope that she i texted her i remember texting her after they won and we were talking in the morning and i was like i hope you haven't slept the wink and i hope she hasn't slept since still i hope she's on a generational bender i i i shoot we so one thing i will we'll we'll see if if we can even talk about it but there's

a chance Aaron's on a new team here next year. Oh, you're okay. No, no, people know, people know that. Like, that's not, we're not breaking any news. But I can't imagine there's been a very, a lot of thought process. Haven't got into the, into the training. Yeah, dude, we're just celebrating right now. It's unbelievable.

Dude, you got to enjoy. You got to enjoy. There's, the Panthers last year, didn't skate till late August, you know. Yeah, that was so funny when we had Benny on and he was like, dude, I, I haven't thought about putting skates on in weeks. He's like you just rip it up, dude. And the city is probably... I'm ready. That's actually what I'm most excited.

Never been more ready. Probably an absolute zoo there. God, the transit... Yeah, Aaron, can you hear us? I can hear you hear you. Wow, that went great. You look so professional right now. I'm upset.

I thought we were going to get a party, Aaron, but you just look like a million bucks. Do you hear my voice? I don't have a voice. Wow, this is incredible. Have you been on a generational run? Yeah, this is an all-timer for me, I think. I'm not well. I'm not well. Give me the 24 hours following the wind. Like, tell me everything that happened minute by minute. So, like, in the dress room, actually, we were on the ice forever.

Yeah, I was going to say, you were on there for a long time. And I think the league is probably going to change that up because we were able to get beers on the ice. And I think that's why we were on the ice for so long. Into the dressing room, had some media and stuff to do. And then went back to the hotel. And we had like a big conference room with the hotel and family and friends were there. And then bus was at 9 a.m. the next day. Come on.

Yeah. Did you sleep? No way. Yes, I did sleep. That is one thing. Like, I'm pretty good. but if it hits two, like, two is my cap. I can't do it after that.

Yeah. I'm miserable. Yeah. And then it was back. And then we all took like the afternoon. And then we went to a bar here in Montreal to watch game one of the series. It was this random. It's called Bruno Sports Bar.

And it like it was phenomenal. We were dancing on tables after they won. Like it was a riot. Daddy shut up, Bruno's, dude. Yeah. That's amazing. Looks like we got to go to Bruno's. That's unbelievable. I had never heard of the place before. Never. And they wanted us there and they, they treated us well. There you go. It's fantastic. You're, you know what? I am hearing it in

the voice now. You've definitely, you've been ripping. It's a little raspy. That was a pretty wild playoff run. Obviously, we were talking throughout the whole thing. But like, there were definitely a couple of tests there of, I don't think so much the team, because I just felt like you guys had it the whole time, but there were definitely tests of like mental fortitude of like, all right, don't panic here. Let's keep going. What were some of the hardest games for you guys going through this run? I think game two against Minnesota because we lose game one and overtime and it's like, uh-oh, like, is this going to happen again? And then kind of to bounce back when and that was the triple OT, I think. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So like huge end, you say it every time like OT, O.T.

can go either way. Yeah. So to get that, go to Minnesota even was huge. And then obviously game five, Minnesota, like, game four, they came out on fire, and it was like we didn't really know what to do. But game five was, I thought, awesome. And then, again, like the first two games against Ottawa both go to overtime. That's crazy.

And to get those done early in overtime, I also think it's pretty key. Oh, my God. Huge. Does at some point as you're having success through those OTs when you go to O T again, do you feel a little bit better or is it every time O T you're like, give me a fucking break, get me out of here? Well, I think like a little bit of both. I think we've had so many OTs. Like the amount of O.T in our league every year in playoffs is insane. Yes.

Like I look at the last three years and almost every game has gone into OT or at least is a one goal game. And when we tied it up game two, or was it game one against Ottawa with two seconds left, it was like, well, let's go to OT, let's do it again. And Ottawa did it to us last year. They tied it up with like less than 10 seconds to go. And that was our quadruple overtime game against then. So I was kind of happy that like it wasn't a double digit OT kind of night and it was an early one. Yeah.

Because Aaron, I agree. If you don't score really early, it starts to feel like it's going to be. be four you know like if you don't get that quick goal you're like come on god damn it yeah it's such a nightmare what was the i know they say if you sorry no no you keep going i was going to say they say like it's either a goal in the first five or the last five and i feel like it's like no it's either goal in the first five or it's the fifth overtime yeah correct that is exactly how it really is what was the what was the chatter like after game three uh versus ottawa um for me personally i felt like anybody I talked to, I was like, guys, I actually think this was a good thing for us.

I think we needed, like, nobody expected it to be a suite. Like, we went in there and like, yeah, it would be lovely to get a sweep. But like, Ottawa finds ways to win games. And it was like, it wasn't going to be easy. And I said, like, we had the lead for about 10 minutes in the third period. And I don't think we took our foot off the gas, but you saw Ottawa push. Yeah. So I think it was good for us to learn kind of how to play with that lead and how to

find a way to do it better in game four, which obviously we did it in potting quite a few big goals in the third. Oh my God. Yeah, massive. Because it's so weird. Like a series can swing with just that momentum, right? And to be able to have a group that can go, listen, it's fine.

Learn from this and keep going. It's so key because it's like you blink otherwise. And now you're in a game five situation, which is a nightmare. I was talking about it watching the ads game four. I was like, I don't know if person. Personally, momentum is a thing game to game.

I think there's momentum in a game. But for me, I sit there and I'm like, okay, so we just have to win a hockey game. And like, for me, after losing game three, I'm like, well, we're not, like, we're, we're not going to lose three in a row. I don't know if we lost. I think we might have lost three in a row this year once, maybe, but it's like, we're going to find a way to win a hockey game. Like, for me, it just doesn't go game to game, but that's my personal. opinion. I like that. I like that take too. I do as a fan I get stuck in it where I'm like oh no 100 this matters like as soon as you lose one at home I'm like oh my god now they're buzzing

when they go back I think all of that stuff goes into it but I would say even talking to some of the Panthers guys two years ago when they were up 3-0 in the final member and I was like oh my god were you tweaking in game seven and they were like no it was just like just another hockey home game just win the game and I was like okay good point so I think the most right like I think there's so much outside noise about it yes but like you sit there and you go into the dressing room and you're like okay so what happened last game it's your learning it's time to learn from it if you lost you learn from it and what works so it's like it's not like I go into the dressing room in between the second and third and I'm like oh my gosh they still have so much momentum because they came back

and scored two goals in the last five minutes in game three like no it's gone it's white gold fish yes yes yes oh so one of my favorite things about this and like talking to you after you won and seeing how pumped you were and like watching the games being invested in it we saw it with four nations where it was you know remember we were talking it's like let's see how this is going to be are they going to be fired up about it the coolest thing about the walter cup is like this is only the third one but it doesn't fucking matter like you guys were so dialed in and locked in, I mean, you yourself are playing through multiple injuries like so many of the other gals on the ice. And it's like, how can you try to explain how unbelievable it is that it's like this league shows up?

We've got this cup that is, you know, Minnesota, Minnesota now you guys. But the desire to win it is like through the roof. Like it feels like this has been a thing that's been around for 100 years. Like, it's like you want Walter. Yeah. I just want to be around. And it's like, not that we have it, but we haven't had that. Like you even look, I think the biggest comparison to me is going through all centralization, going to Beijing.

Like you were with that group the whole year. So now like since college, I hadn't had a group to work with awards a championship other than like Beijing. Because this year's Olympics were different. We weren't together as a group the whole time. So to be with this group the whole year and be like, no, at the end of the championship. No, at the end of the day, it's Walter that we want. Like, Walter is, Walter is our Lord Stanley. Like, that is Lord Walter.

And I mean, it's just so surreal to actually be like, no, like, I am a champion now. Yeah. Fucking right. All the swag. All the gear. It's like, we, you and I talked about it. It's like, you guys were so solid all year. And how, I mean, I know you've had, we don't need to revisit February, but there, there's

been some amazing wins and some tough losses in your career. This was an awesome one that's like, it felt to me at least. And I'm curious what you thought all season, it felt like this was a team that could win this cup. So to then go and do it, that must feel unbelievable. Yeah, it's almost like, I don't want to say a relief, but like you're just trying so hard. And I think even more, like we talked about it as a group like winning round one was so big for us because we hadn't done it yet but like my big thing was I was like throughout the first series everybody like we kept saying like six more wins five more wins and I'm like okay like that but I'm also sitting here reading like we got to get through Minnesota like yeah yeah I can't think about the next

three wins if we don't get three wins first um but I do think the whole year like it was like everything is building to Walter. So how do we find a way to get to Walter? And obviously had to go through a very good Minnesota team to do that. But once we got through Minnesota and it wasn't that we didn't think Boston or Ottawa were going to be like hard, hard matchups and hard games, it was just for us as a group, it was like, okay, we did that step. Now it's on to Walter and there's three games to go.

Three wins to do it. Yeah, that's awesome. And Aaron, I want your take now because a lot of times when we do the golf tournament, for example, we'll ask guys, what we do for the end of the golf? Hell yes, he's coming to this one. But we'll ask the guys. You've been playing too.

You're getting into it. We got to get you to this one for sure. But we'll ask the guys, Stanley Cup or gold medal. You know, like what would be bigger? And I was actually kind of surprised how split the answers were and what matters. So are you at all surprised? You don't even have to tell me which ranks higher in your power rankings of all your epic wins. But are you surprised how high this ranks?

Was that a shock? Or were you like, no, this was always something I put up in that upper echelon? I'm not surprised. But I do think the one thing with Walter is Walter's only three years old. Yeah. Like I think Stace actually had a great quote about it. And she was like, I can't even say I've dreamed of this my whole life because it wasn't a dream. Like we didn't have this as a dream because it wasn't a reality until three years.

ago. Yeah. So that's the one thing I will say is like winning an Olympic gold medal was my dream from eight years old. Yeah. And probably before that. But when I watched an O2 like that became my dream. And like Walter became my dream when the league was created.

But like before that I didn't have a dream about Walter because Walter didn't exist. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. But it's like it's, I think what's so cool about winning this cup is it's kind of a combination of the dream of how having this league to play in and then also win that league. It's a pretty cool double-pronged achievement, which is- Oh my God, dude.

It's amazing. Unbelievable. It's so, it's about time, but it's so great to have this too, because as sick as the Olympics are and all the international tournaments are, it's so much pressure on that. You know, you're like, okay, well, if I don't get that, like, what else am I chasing here? And to be able to come back, especially after losing, but to be able to come back this year and go there's a whole other thing where we're fighting this group is fighting for that and to get on top of that mountain is like god that's awesome how long and i think like you said coming back from

losing and then coming back and trying to like get healthy to be like no i need to get healthy so that we can compete for a walter cup and i can help this team compete for a walter cup like it was so crummy and so shitty to like not sit in it but it was like no i need to like actually just get my stuff together and figure it out because now in two months time, three months time, I want to be playing for a Walter Cup. Yeah. I'm glad you just brought that up because I did, I was just thinking this like what a roller coaster this year was. I mean, there were so many ups and down, so many battles. How can you even describe how you're feeling right now and like once you won and lifted that cup, were you like, this is fucking unbelievable? Or,

Or was there a little bit of a combination of like, holy hell, what a grind this year was? It was like a holy hell, thank God it ended in a good way. Yeah, yeah. And it made it all worth it. And it was like my dad was there. My dad, my stepdad and my cousin were there on the ice with me. And I looked at my dad and I was like, thank God. Like, thank God on the last game of the season.

Because it does help kind of put a Band-Aid on not winning gold. and it's not to say that I'm not proud of the silver medal in Milan because I really am, but there's still that sour taste in your metal. So winning Walter definitely makes it a little bit easier. Yeah. You're such an athlete, Aaron, because winning is just a relief. You know, like losing sucks and winning is a relief. Spoken like a true, true competitive athlete.

So what's, I mean, what's the summer looking like for you? Do you have anything planned out? I know there's a lot of big decisions. coming up. I know there's some rehab coming up, but like, what's immediately on the docket for you? I need to get my ass to my cottage, like, ASAP, because I need this. My mom's like, oh, I don't know if we're going to be there. I'm like, I'm totally okay with silence at the cottage once this is all said and done. I mean, I'm pumped for the parade tomorrow. Like, I think this, it's kind of our last thing, and I think it's going to be done quite well, and I think we're going to go quite hard.

and then like you said a lot coming up in the next two three weeks with expansion and everything and it's going to be a lot but um just try to navigate that and then i feel like my summer's already getting super booked up with things i got a bachelor party to go on for my cousins i'm in my cousins i'm a grooms woman hell yes so i've got some yeah some big shoes to fill at the bachelor party which i've never done before where's where's the bachelor party we're going in North Carolina, me and 14 guys. What the fuck? God. Why? Why? Does he live in North Carolina?

They're in Arlington, I think. So they're driving down and you wanted to do North Carolina. And we said, okay, J.D., let's do it. All right. Where are you going to be in Raleigh or what's the plan? Where are we? Also, when? Wilmington. Oh, yeah. That's actually so far. 11 five day bachelor party i mean we might we might see you like i was going to say like

if the final is is in carolina which it looks like it's going to be that would be hilarious i'll show up i had some days i might have to add that into his itinerary be like jd i'm we're i'm going going to come i'm going to rally yeah there you go god that has to happen that is incredible but i can't say that because like the habits are coming back correct there you're right yeah yeah I love that you just thought that you were nearing the end of this generational bender. And now, and your days away. Parade tomorrow. Bachelor party in like a week and a half.

This is your toast. Two week hiatus. Yeah. Yeah. That is special. Our head coach said last night to our strength and conditioning coach, she said, good luck this summer, Vicki. Good luck.

Yeah. Seriously. Your knee is never going to recover. This is unbelievable. Aaron, we have a question in the chat. I'm going to read to you, okay? It says, I have a question to Aaron. My 11-year-old girl is a big fan and wants to start hockey this year.

Is this too late for her? And what big advice for her can you give? Absolutely not too late. I would say one of the best defensemen in the world, Renata Fast, didn't really start playing. I think she started early, but didn't really get into competitive hockey into the later on in her life. And she is now one of the best defensemen in the world. that I don't think it's ever too late, to be honest.

And then advice, I think the biggest thing for me is always to make sure you're having fun. Like, I have to remind myself as a pro hockey player that the game is supposed to be fun and as much as it is my job, if I'm not having fun, I'm not playing well. God, that's so accurate by the way. Especially about the playing well part. Like I know everyone says it for, don't do it.

It should be fun, it should be fun, but it literally will make you play better. Yeah. If you are just enjoying yourself and the game, you wanted to start in the first place because you love. That's how you play your play. Yeah, absolutely correct. I love to hear that.

Where is the, where's the rate, right? Where's the route tomorrow for the parade? Oh, true. So we don't know. I think we've got, we're waiting on a little bit of info. We're not doing too much of like an actual like parade parade. It's going to more be just like, you know how they always do the stage setup at the end? Yeah, yeah.

like that's where we're going to do a big chunk of it. I think we're only doing a couple blocks. But we were like, what's our bus situation? They're like, it's a surprise. And we're like, well, as long as there's no roof, we're okay with a surprise. But you can't have us in a frigging charter bus and we're banging on a window. Yeah, no chance. Yeah, you've got to be up and out in the open for sure.

Absolutely. This is also a genius play by Montreal because if the habs lose tonight, this is going to be a great way to pick everyone's spirits up. and if they win, people will be buzzing. This is a win-win. This is a genius move. I worry about you if they win tonight. And then the energy tomorrow is going to be chaos. Yeah.

Well, we are meeting at our practice rink. And our team party MVP or Lina Youngblum and I are going to bike there together. So we're making smart decision. Good. Well, don't bike home. Oh, no, no. Oh, we won't be. I'll be walking home.

Jesus Christ. And you know what? I like this. Just the walk or just the bike there. Yeah, there you go. You kind of earn the parade. You know, you buy there. Burn some cows.

A little cow burn. It's great. Earn the beers. 12 minute bike, guys. We're going to be on the city bixie bikes. Like, I love those things. Yeah, that's the best. All right.

Well, Aaron, we love you. Thank you for popping on. I want you to be able to go rest before tomorrow because I think this is going to be another generational. I demand a FaceTime tomorrow. I was going to say in the praise. And is there anything before we cut you loose, is there anything that you need the people to know that you got going on,

anything that you want to plug or shout out? Oh, I got nothing going on in my life other than celebrations, apparently. God, what an answer. What an incredible answer. I do need to shout out. Shawnee Walker, Airline of Hurricanes. Shawnee and I grew up playing together.

Gordina Blaze, York Simco Express. and obviously he's a new father now too. But it's been pretty cool to follow his journey. And as much as I need to cheer for the HABs right now, it's pretty cool to see Shawnee one game away from playing for a Stanley Cup. That's a pretty cool win-win. That's awesome. Where are you watching tonight, Aaron?

I don't, that's the thing. You might have to go back to Bruno's. You might have to go back to Bruno's. No, Bruno. No, we can't go to Bruno. We can't go back to Bruno's. We will not make the parade. I've watched two games at Lord Williams with some of the girls.

Might actually hit up Molly Carlson tonight, and Aiden has two high divers. So I might watch with them changed up. But we'll see. We haven't heard anything if the group's doing anything. Okay. There you go. Gohabs go.

Gohabs go. Absolutely. And, yeah, we'll talk to you tomorrow during the celebrations. I can't wait. Can't wait, guys. No screen recording. No, no, no. Never.

All right. You're the best, Aaron. We'll talk to you soon. Bye, guys. Love you, Aaron. See ya. That is so epic. That is so epic. What a run. Dude, that bachelor party is too close to this. She has a break. She has no break. I cannot get over how funny that is of Aaron being like, you know, like, I got to like chill out here for a second. Did she say, June 5th? I think, like, it's a five day on the 11th, I think. Okay, 11. Okay, if it's the 11th is a little time. But holy hell, that's a generational run.

which is incredible. Once you're in, once you're in it, you just got to go. You go till the wheels come off. That's pretty much how it works. I mean, it's the only other option.

You just, sometimes you got to just stay on the train. Jumping off is a dangerous game. That's how people get hurt, yeah. What a historic, Willie, you can come in.

Come on in. Get it, do your thing, pal. We're live. Make sure it's a loud stream. So, hey, can we get the mic in there? People want to talk about a live stream.

I got a live stream for you right here. Willie D. Taking a pee live on the Empty Netters podcast right now. There's food if anybody wants a... Or are these burgers? Yeah, I think they're pretty high. You might need to soak up some alcohol. If they're...

I would love one of those later. If someone needs to get their hands on one before they all go. I don't need it, but I think they're probably gone by now. No, I don't need it now. I want it after, but make sure that someone out there grab me a burger. Put a burger on hold. I'll go now and see if I can scrown. but I'm a little skeptical here.

You are a legend, Evan. Oh, my God. All right, we got another guest popping on here in a second. It's very exciting. We haven't seen our pal here. Is he on yet? He is not yet. All right.

He might not be home yet. He's, this guy's buzzing around all of them. Yeah, epic day. So we got T.J. O'Shee popping on the show here in a second. And, oh, Evan. Let's go. Are these breakfast burgers? Is that a thing?

They look like Five Guys to me. If there is... Which is a rough way to start your morning. Didn't we talk about the other day, Zach, that Five Guys is the unhealthiest of all the fast food burgers? We did. How to go, Willie? Very well.

He had a great P. Do you want to tell the people? A lot of people were asking. Wait, Willie, do you want to tell the people? You can hop on? Yeah, yeah. Come up. Pop on, dude.

Tell people. Get that other mic down. Yeah, it's on. I'm actually in the middle of recording my. podcast right now. And I stepped out to use the bathroom. Whoa, this is sick. This is like a double pod situation. I don't know if this has ever happened before. I don't think I think this is a first. And I woke up at 9 a.m. this morning. And I

checked, I had a bunch of texts. We were recording at 9 a.m. So that's why. Terrible feeling. I roll that about it. I'm not wearing a shirt under this. I, you look a little bit like you came from a pajama part. I am startled right now. More ways than one. Well, you know, listen, if you If you oversleep and all of a sudden, boom, you got to be on your show and now you're on two shows. You go to the bathroom and then you're on a different show. Now you're on a new show, dude. You're in a spin cycle. I'm getting like pod fucked right now. Yeah, you are. You truly are.

All right. Go back to my show. Hey, go back to your show. Who's going to win Stanley Cup? Vegas. Wow. It looks like it's going to be Vegas or Carolina is up three one against Montreal. Yeah. Okay. For a chance to go. So you get to choose between Vegas, Carolina or Montreal. A crazy comeback Canadian. I'm from South Carolina. Okay, Carolina hurricanes have won the Stanley Cup. Yeah, there we go.

That's my pick. All right, love you guys. Love you too, brother. I also, he's from South Carolina. We claim, Willie's from Maine. We claim Willie. This isn't talk about Carolina hours, Zach. Sorry, I wanted to talk a little bit of Carolina.

My bad. Jesus Christ, Zach. Whoa. Oh, it's the Friday meeting. Yeah, there you go. We have a new. We have a new. We have a new player.

We signed a new player, too. Do you guys want to... We do? Yeah, we signed a new player. He's doing two truths and a lie right now. Wait, is this the... He's a new editor? I guess.

I've met that guy. We got a new guy. Man, I want to start talking about DVDs and VHSs again, but T.J. is going to pop on any moment, and then we can't really get into it like that. You can, uh, why don't you start one of the other things that you wanted to talk about? One of our Friday free-for-all, topics? Yeah, I guess. Is TJ wait

on him? I sent him the link. Okay. Yeah. I think Oshu is coming back from hockey practice with the kiddos. Yeah, yeah. So he's... Actually, it was school. He was at a...

He was at like a... Parent teacher conference. Well, no. It was like a... You know, bring a buddy to school day. And his nephew gets to go like this. I'll actually bring T.J. Oshy. Is that true? Yeah, like other kids probably brought

some fucking random ass person and then his nephew goes I actually brought an American hero T.J. Oshy So you're welcome. Wow, that's pretty that's what a flex.

That is an all-time show and tell flex. Talk about swamping your dick on the table. Like it's insane, dude. I cannot believe I might bring I need to bring Osh here. We need to bring a cool person to work day and I'm going to bring a T.J. Osi and see how good it feels.

I mean, I could, we could talk about another movie related thing. Or do we, do we want to go into our topics of Free for All Friday? Oh yeah. I just got the weirdest email of all time. This is like the craziest, this is like the craziest fishing email of all time. Was it a Nigerian prince? Dude, I, I've got an email here that says, re, your Freedom Boat Club membership.

Uh-oh. And there is a, there's a, a fake you on this email. Oh. It's from this guy, Brian says, Dan, looks like you opened the email yesterday at 12.13 p.m., but here are the links you need.

And there's an email from a Chris Powers that says, Matt, this is Chris Powers. It appears there may have been a misunderstanding or communication with my membership. Can you call me at the number to discuss? And then at the bottom, it says, thank you, Matt. Dan's email address is blank. And it's like the full,

I was about to read my email online, on live. That would have been bad. Is it an incorrect email? Wait, wait. This is it says, you said Freedom Boat Club or Book Club? Freedom Boat Club membership. Oh, the world's largest boating club. It says hello from Freedom Boat Club.

Wait. Is this a fishing email or with CP that hammered last night? He doesn't remember signing up for a boat. It's really a fishing email. You're going on a fishing trip on a boat. Yeah, I didn't mean fishing in the bad way. I mean, this is a fishing. trip. But this person's email

is C-Powers and then a couple of numbers. It's not your email. This looks real. I mean, CP, how hammered me this could have been me? Now that he's saying it out loud. Sarasota, Florida. There's also a Brian Powers on this email.

Your chance that this is an entire Powers family and they're having a real conversation and they've just gotten your there's a Dan Powers they were supposed to copy and they accidentally put But they have like a different Dan Powers copied on there. That's what I'm saying. I think you got put on by accident and this is another Powers family having a very real conversation. And they're about to offer me a free

boating membership. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah, I do. I think you're in, dude. This is unbelievable. OSHA's here. All right. Let's bring OSHA in and then we can get more into the free for all nonsense later. For now, here he is. Osh, can you hear us? I gotcha, boys. What's up? Yes. God. It's good. to see you, pal. How are you? I'm good. I got to turn you up a little bit. There we go. Locked and loaded. Where are you? Are you in a broom closet?

Yeah, so kind of embarrassing. We built this house during like the COVID times, right? Yeah. And so you couldn't do anything. And so I picked up gaming with the fellas. And so this is like actually like the back end of my closet. And I would set it up for like a gaming room. My own like little area. we're like, you know, so no one can hear me. Yeah, you yell. Yeah. And then everything went back to real life. And I'm a father of four. My wife is like, you can be up all night gaming.

Like, you got to be up with the kids at 6 a.m. And so, yeah, this is actually, it is like a closet in the back of my, my closet, I guess. Yeah, yeah. So there's nothing back here. I got like, I don't really like hang up stuff. I'm not really like a memorabilia guy, right? So like my ring is sitting here, my mini Stanley Cup, my thousandth game stick, OV sign stick, and then my two Olympic sticks.

They're kind of just chilling in this back, like little closet that I don't even go into. Dude, I cannot believe the quality of that merch right. It just looked like a couple sticks. Oh, yeah, no, those are big time twigs. Those are big time twigs. Also, you have a habit, oh, of like being like, oh, this is embarrassing and then it's something so cool. like setting up a gaming dungeon in your closet sounds sick.

What were you playing? What were you playing with the boys? I was a cod. Yeah. I was war zone. We had to like quite a squad. Like me and Johnny Carlson would skip our pregame nap on the road to like play. Yeah.

John was better. Like usually they'd be like, all right, we got to be at the bus. And now he's like, oh, I'm going to go take a quick 30. And I'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, me too. And he would jump off. And I'd be like, nah, no, come. I'm going to keep ripping by myself. No, it was, it was, it was great.

It was so much fun. Was Johnny good at Mario Kart? I was going to say. Johnny, he was more of like a FIFA guy. So we always had like the Mario Kart was one station and then the PlayStation or and then PlayStation on the next. Yeah. So he would, he would more so get with like the Europeans and they'd be ripping on. I think he was pretty good at FIFA though.

Johnny gets fired up. He's super competitive. So he's like the exact kind of guy you want to play video games. Yeah, that pumps me up so awesome. I send them all the time I send them these videos that you see on like, I don't know, on Instagram or whatever of like like war zone kills and it goes like whose face is it like got like actors like crying. You know like yeah. You know what I mean?

And we're like saying about to cry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just goes back and forth. I send them all the time and literally like whoever sends it. The other guy just responds with like a crying emoji. like the best times, the best time. God, it's so good, man. It's actually, this is such a ridiculous reference,

but there's a line in the TV show, the OC, where it's like two of the adults are playing video games, and one of them looks the other one, and he's like, God, I miss playing video games with my boys. And I remember seeing that line and being like, I hope that never happens to me, where I have to miss playing video games. I hope I'm always playing video games with my boys.

But you don't know you're in the good days, dude, and then it just disappears. It's gone. It's gone. I know, dude. I know. It is. Like, I think our time has passed. And you know what's funny. I actually bought a new, uh, 007 game came out like two days ago. And I bought it. And I played like an hour of it. It's like, it's like, um, you know that game Red Dead Redemption? I don't know if you've ever played. But it's like one of these games with a great story mode. Dude, I started playing this game. I got like an hour in and I had to turn it off because I was like, this is going to suck the next 50 hours of my life. It's fucking insane. Dude, are you, so you're home right now, but you've been, you've been buzzing. You've been ripping all the broadcasting work and buzzing around. How's it been?

It's been good. Yeah, I'm home right now. I'm in the dungeon. But it's, uh, it's been crazy. It's been a crazy year. And like, I say it every time I talk about it. I have so much more respect for the people that go on TV. You, you think you just like, it's easy to get your thoughts out there.

And in a way that people can understand, especially. if they're not massive hockey fans, right? If they didn't play to elite level, you have to simplify things with how you say it and still be interesting and still not look like you're trying to think while you're speaking, like have it just come out. Yeah.

It's an amazing skill. And honestly, the host, so like Steve Levy, Bucci, these, like... Weapons. I can't explain how many things, like, just don't always go perfectly and they make everything so seamless and they're like off the cuff sometimes

there was one time where we couldn't hear our producers for like an entire show and anytime there was any type of audio so anytime like a clip came up of you know we're talking over a goal or something our audio like switched out we couldn't hear our producers

and Steve Levy is just the ultimate ultimate professional like I just can't even describe it's like Nicholas Bastron throwing a sausage that's what I equated to Or like Ovi taking one time. Like that's how good he is at what he does. Yeah.

It's true. Like those guys get in the pocket and they're just like vibe in and snapping it around to each other. They're so good at what they do. It's so fun. And OSHA, even when it's going well, right? Like even without the mistakes, it's hard. It's so hard. You know now.

Like you've got that shit in your ear. People are like so much happening while you can't lose your train of thought and keep talking and keep getting everyone else at the desk engaged. It is actually fascinating. how good it is. Honestly, like, when I hear someone say like 10 seconds in my ear, to me, that's like fire drill. Yeah.

And P.K. will hear 10 and he'll like smooth it out to like 12 where in my mind I'm like if I get to 10, like I'm fired. Yes. P.K does it in a way where like it rolls right into Steve Levy and Steve Levy and Steve Levy takes us out of the intermission and it's to the game. Yeah. And like, so like for me when, when I hear something like if I hear someone wrap it up, I almost

stop speaking. Even if I'm in the middle of a point, I'm like, and yeah. And anyway, it's going to be a pretty good game. I'm excited for the period. They're like, dude, that was one second. Yeah, it's brutal. They got to shoot. They got to get more shots. Like, I'm, I'm messing up a majority of the time when I'm speaking. And then once I start it, my brain switches off, blackout. And if you ask me right after the intermission, what I said, I'd have no idea. Yeah, it's so true, dude. I got to know, are you, is there a residual like, oh, how am I going to say this?

Is there a residual Met rivalry vibe for you watching Carolina? And you're like, fuck Carolina. I don't want them to win. Yeah. So there definitely is. A lot of players have changed since I played. True. Yeah.

And so I think, I don't know, but like once you build like this hatred for like a team, like it's hard to kick it, right? Yeah. And especially since they've been so good, they've made playoffs every year since they beat us in the first round when we were trying to go back to back. And so it's like, you kind of like these guys earth me.

But now that I, now that I've stepped away a little bit and I appreciate the game, I think a little bit more and first time I've ever like really been watching, I can definitely appreciate how the guys in that locker room buy in to what Rod tells them. And buy into a system. And when you, like that system that they buy into, you have to be extremely unselfish to play there and to have success and to earn the trust of Rod and continually get thrown out there for a regular shift and earn your ice time. So the hockey player in me absolutely like and a fan really appreciates what they're doing.

The Washington Capitol in me is like, I still hate you guys. Yeah, get out. They lose game one and you're like, oh, yes, keep it like this is you. Let's talk. Yeah. Come on, Montreal. Yeah. Dude, I...

No, but I feel like they're earning their stripes. And I have a question about that, Osh. It must be, if you can zoom out enough to appreciate this, they're kind of having, if they can finish the job, and an experience you guys had in 18, where it's like, God, we've been so good, and for so long, and have won Persians and Sophie's, you know, and just can't get over that hump.

You must appreciate a little bit being like, oh, shit. They're kind of having that journey we had in 18 if they can finish the job. Yeah, you really appreciate like, like I don't think I necessarily appreciate like Florida going, I appreciate them going back to back because I know how it's just a win one. But that second win, you're almost like, all right, we already know that you guys know what it takes. And they did it again. So, and they're tired. They had the shortest summer of anyone, especially with like the party and it goes into it.

Yeah. And so you appreciate that. But like a team like Karyland, like you mentioned, I brought a ton of heartache from. St. Louis to Washington. Washington already had all the heartache there. We had two president's trophies, didn't get the job done, watch our rivals go on and win. So you definitely, there is something there where I can, I'm almost like happy for the guys in the room that have been there and having gotten the job done and have to do those terrible interviews at the end of the season of like, what happened. Yeah, right. What was it? Like, I mean, I don't know. Like we,

like we were right there. Everyone, we thought, everyone was, was bought in. You know, you didn't get one call here. But then you don't want to make mistakes either, right? Yeah, yeah. Like, you don't want to make excuses for why you didn't do it. Sometimes you've got to tip your half and be like, only one team wins and we didn't get it done.

But I definitely appreciated the buying that they're having. And also, like, the secondary scoring. I think that's kind of what they've been missing. Oh, my God. That second line is, I mean, they're leading the team by a couple of them, like the double them up in points for some of the guys on the first line, I think. And so it's like, Like that's, that's unbelievable.

Now the first line is getting going. They're scared. Yeah. No, it's so true, man. Do you, I've been, I've been kind of banging the drum all playoffs that, like, it does feel like this Carolina team is different than they've been over the last several years. Do you feel that as well? Like, do you think that this team actually has the juice?

Yeah. I do because of the, the depth that's coming out with them. Like, when I think back to when we won, yeah, oh, like, OV's always, always going to be our best player. Ovi and Cousie were our best two players throughout the whole playoffs, right? You can throw Braden Holpey in there. But I don't think of like, maybe Coozie's overtime goal against Pittsburgh to close out the series. But I don't necessarily think of like, the big goals I think about is like Devante Smith Pelly. Yeah, I do. Like coming up mass up in the finals. You know what I mean? Lars Eller scoring the winner. I think of our death guys and what they

did and how they contributed to like offensively you know those guys are always going to bring it defensively, physicality, Pek-K all that stuff, right? But those guys stepped up in that way and in the same token, Ovi and Coosie stepped up on the defensive side where

Ovi's blocking shots throwing like toe up kick saves from the top of the circles right? So that's kind of that buy-in but because Carolina does have this depth and this second line just absolutely feeling it.

I feel like it could be their time. Yeah. I mean, like we talk about Eilers all the time, man, and it's like that's exactly what you're talking about,

the depth and like the additions. And it's like his, you know, two goal and overtime performance makes you be like, oh shit. Like they kind of got the pieces now. Like they do feel very real.

It's, and it's, we were talking about and, you know, I want your take on Vegas sweeping. Colorado, which fucking blew all of our minds. But it's like, everyone saw that.

And they're like, holy shit, it's just Vegas's year. But Carolina now is showing us like, I don't know, man. Like if this team goes sweep, sweep, gentlemen sweep, how do you not respect that? You know, it's crazy. Yeah, no one's game lined up at the start of playoffs for playoff hockey better than Carolina, right? And we all knew that.

Like, that was a guarantee they play a playoff hockey almost year round. I know. And they're not on the same page. they let up a lot of goals because some guys are going all out and they're pressuring and some guys aren't going to Vegas like I didn't really have with how fast the game is now right like I just didn't have them pegged as like a team

that would that would be in the finals and I'm probably the worst analyst maybe in the history because almost every pick that I've made for ESPN has been like dead wrong so I'm like if you're a betting man like fade ocean you're like going to be making some like serious money yeah um but but

Vegas it seems like they found something too though right like yes there's questions about you're like marner in playoffs he's what is he leading them in points i think so yeah i think he's leading i think he leads the nchal i'm pretty sure yeah leads the nchl heart and net you know

coming from the year he's had he's been unbelievable and then you hear the when you hear the guys speak after games, not necessarily about like their goals or what happened, but more about the buy-in throughout the team. Those are the things you look forward. When I, when I prep for a team, the first thing I go to is the player interviews from the games before and see what they're saying and see how they change from pre-game skate to post-game and the way that they talk about the team and the buy-in. And you can tell as a player if it's something that the coach said and they're just

regurgitating it because that's the message. if it's something they actually believe in and I think Vegas believes that they have everyone bought in too. So I'm not saying the Carolina-Montreal series is over, but if it is going to be Carolina and Vegas, now you have two teams that are convinced that's bought in and what they have to do, and they're going to clash with two different systems. Yeah. And it's going to be pretty fun to watch. That's a great take, dude. Dude, agree.

That's very, very true. Especially because it's kind of fun that the two teams that have the belief, one of them is the Keynes who have, who were the one seat. and came in and they're 12 and 1 and all this stuff. And then the other team is Vegas, who I know they were the ones in the Pacific, but they felt like an underdog like you were saying, Osh, that it's cool that you have one juggernaut team and the other team feels like,

oh man, we're about to shock the world. Those are two really conflicting ideologies, but so strong in playoffs. Oh, for sure. Who's your pick tonight so everyone knows who to fade? I think Carolina is going to get it done. Okay. All right, so we're smashing the house.

hammer Montreal. So whatever you, whatever you guys want to do, I think, I think, I think Carolina is going to get it done. And only because of the momentum that's on their side, and Montreal hasn't found a way to,

to limit that pressure. Dude, I, I'm with you. We kept saying, like, listen, they've played almost twice the amount of games that Carolina has.

It looks like they're just like kind of exhausted in a way. And that's not a knock on them. It's, you know, And I think with the fear of giving Montreal any life must be so strong for this Carolina team that I'm with you. Like I think at home, they're kind of like, if we do not win this game. Yeah. The just the the the Spookville situation that will exist is too much for us to handle.

So we've got to take care of this. So I think they're going to close it out as well. I agree. They don't let up the gas. I think you're, the thing, the thing about the games, too, the game's played, it's, yeah, it's your bodies, right? Everyone's playing hurt. Yeah. But it's almost like more so like the emotional drainage that happens. Yes. Through the ups and downs, through game sevens. It's like you, in play-ups, you have to be so on in every facet of what you do. You just have to be, because you don't know what play is going to change the series. You don't know what play is going to, what turnover is going to lead to something. You don't know. what time on like a back check. If you're like, ah, three on three, I think we're good. And then a guy falls down and you're like, I could have caught that guy.

Yeah. I could have saved the game, which could have saved the series. And so being that locked in is why playoffs is so unbelievable. You can talk about the speed, the physicality, all that stuff, the excitement, the suspense. It's really just getting your brain. More locked in on what you're doing each shift at each moment. for like two months. Yeah.

And so like to get out of that, to get out of that mode, out of that mode of like being so locked in is why I always say like the Stanley Cup champions, usually even though they have the short summer, usually like the first 10 games or first five, six games for sure, they almost go on like a little bit of a tear.

Yeah. Because like that's how they remember. That's how they played their last game. Like that locked in and that kind of becomes ingrained in you. But I don't know where I was even going with that. No, it's a great point. It's just that it's taxing on Montreal to have been in that mode. Yes, through these up and downs where you're like, Jesus Christ, again,

back into another 60 minutes of complete luck, where Carolina has been playing reasonably stress-free. I don't mean to say there was nothing. They had some OT games and they lost game one. But for the most part, they're like, we're just playing our system and we've been winning. So no stress. Yeah, yeah. And then it came up a big break and everyone kind of soon, like I told, like, before the series started,

I was like, I don't, I don't care what happens. They might have roughs. They might not. But by game four, five, six, seven, like, they're going to have way more juice in the tank. Yes, which we are starting to see for sure. Absolutely. Completely agree. Dude, I know you got a million things going on right now.

What can you tell the world about that you got cooking and what's hot in your life right now? Yeah, what's the schedule for the final too? I think I'm doing most, almost all the finals games. I'm not sure exactly the, you know, there's, multiple different, there's different schedules. Yeah, yeah. I think I'm going to be with, do like some stuff with SVP,

Scott Van Pelt. Nice. Fucking right. Let's go. Yeah, yeah, he's honestly the best. He's the band. He's in D.C., right? So, like, I'll be in D.C. with, like, all my boys during the day.

God, that's sick. I don't really know what this. I don't know what the schedule is. I've never done this before, but I assume, like, you could just get some, you know, if you get your prep done, get some golf and in during the day. 100% sure. And then just go hang out, watch the game, and then talk about it after. So I think that's what's going on. You know, got some exciting stuff with the world going on.

And, yeah, the kid just got out of school yesterday. So that mayhem has started. Actually, this is huge. This is huge. My little man, he's six. Yeah. I asked me going to play golf this summer. He said, yeah, I was like, all right, how many days?

He said, every day. Oh, my God, dude. We did it. Okay. So I was like, let's, let's tone it down. He's in four days a week. Okay. We're starting at four.

But I'm super excited about that because that's, you know, that's, I'm a golfer. That's kind of like you dream, like you and your little man. You Earl Woods, Tim. That's huge. Yes. This is unbelievable. Go ahead. I was just saying, I saw this thing that was like, all you have to do, you know,

everybody goes, oh, if you have kids, you never get to play golf anymore. All you have to do is get your kid. to light golf. And then now you're being a good dad. You're playing golf as now being a good dad. So you've cracked the code here. Well, actually, so I got this advice from our team Cairo in St. Louis. And he was like, yeah, I take my daughters. I take him out like in the afternoon. And we go to like the pond on the course. And I just take all the old balls I find, put in my bag, and they just hit balls into the pond and they love it. They love making a splash, whatever. And so I kind of started doing that with him. It started out going to like the short game

area, I bring his trucks, and I just let him play in the sand trap with his trucks. Yes, dude. There you go. And then eventually he was like, I bring up a wedge with him. And eventually he'd be like, he'd hit like four or five, you know, they won't go anywhere. He's like, all right, I'm going to play trucks. So it's been like a two-year thing where I've been like, all right, let's go hit balls in the pond. Let's do this. And so, yeah, so he's in four days a week right now. And I think he, I think he loves it. At the end of the last fall, we're on the range for like two hours and I think my back was hurting so I wasn't really hitting and uh I was you know chipping around hitting some punch shots whatever and Campbell's I'm like all right bud we got

we got to we got to go like we I think we already missed dinner yeah so we're driving um out of interlocking and he's like papa wait and I stopped and I was like I'm like what he's like we didn't put and I was like oh my I was like all right let's call mom I was like you're talking to her Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we called him, Mom, can we go putt? And she was like, yeah, I guess. Yeah.

So we pulled a little U-turn and went back in and worked on the short game. This is unbelievable, dude. Campbell's coming in clutch right now. Lauren's eventually going to be like, are you fucking kidding? You're like, listen, I'm just being a good dad. I don't know what to tell you. Like, I'm letting this kid follow his dreams here. And this is about to be the best time or ever, dude.

I'm pub for it. Yeah, this is huge. Are you going to be in D.C. for the entirety? Are you going to be on site at any of the games? I think I'll be in D.C. And so nothing's confirmed yet. This is just rumblings.

I haven't, nothing's, nothing solid. So once I get the call of what I'm going, what I'm doing, obviously it'd be great to be on site, right? Yeah. To be in the arena and feel the buzz. But I know P.K.MS will do it and leave, so we'll do a phenomenal job there. But even just like to be, that's the hard thing with TV is like,

I'm by myself a lot, right? I'm traveling by myself and going out to dinner by myself because guys are going all over the place. PK's in New York. Steve Lee did a game the night before, whatever it is. And so the one cool thing about the finals is that the guys travel to the rinks together. So they're able to go out to dinner.

Oh, yeah. Whatever, grab a beat. Talk about the game. There's probably so much, so many good things that come from them being together for the full finals where you're probably going to get a lot better coverage than you would if guys are coming from all over the place and not able to kind of talk off air too much. Yeah.

That's true. I was going to say, fuck, like we got it. I know, I want to pop into D.C., dude. Maybe we do.

We're in Raleas pop over. I mean, I'm bringing the clubs with me for sure. Yeah. Bring the clubs, boys. Maybe we'll just pop down. Let's get down to D.C.

There we go. All right, dude, before we cut you loose, you mentioned, like, bunch of great things going on with the World Road.

Is there anything that the people need to know? I don't even know if I'm allowed to show this or not. I actually have an approved prototype of our new sock. Oh, nice. I actually have my World Road Sox

Bang. Hey, let's go. They are, I don't know if you can see like the little. Oh, I sure can. Oh, dude. That's all cut resistant right there. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, so you guys know Jason.

He's been working extremely hard on this fabric right here for a long time. And so to finally bring it to the sock. And, you know, we got some other ideas of where it could go. It's super, super exciting. We got the kids, all our kids, youth Tylos are 50% off right now. So I think that's the lowest they've ever been. Incredible. 50% off until, until I believe, the 4th of July.

So people can gear up for next year, get them early, stash them away, you know, for the fall. Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I got some, you know, I posted that thing about, like, doing a podcast thing. That's, you know, not totally off the table. You know, my head's always spinning. I'm always trying to find ways to like, yeah, you're, and be around my kids.

Yeah. Because I just, I love, like, all, all of, like, the development that goes into, like, everything, right? Even, like, doing math and stuff. Yeah. I just, I love trying to, like, help their brain, like, figure out things. Same with on the ice or a skating stride or a golf swing or whatever it is. I'm super interested in the mental side and also, like, the positivity and the, positive reinforcement, all that stuff.

And so this year has just been crazy with the Olympics, Caps, ESPN. It was so much travel that I missed a lot of this year. And so just trying to find ways to be home a little bit more. Hell yeah, man. I love it. That's good stuff. And dude, when those socks had dropped officially, let us know

because we will pump that up. Those are incredible. Oh, yeah, absolutely, dude. I appreciate. I appreciate, yeah. Honestly, I might get in trouble for showing those on. But no, they're the real deal. And people have been at,

NHL players have been asking for them for a long time. Yeah. Because they had our sock. I actually love the other sock, but it's not, it's not cut resistant. Yeah. And so we'll see if, you know, we'll see when these drop.

I actually don't even know. That's like how new. This is like an approved prototype. Yeah. People want it right now and we're like, you can't have it. The only two people, that I know that actually have them is John Carlson was leaving Anaheim. They had a tournament in

Minnesota on his way to D.C. And so I got one for Luca Carlson. I gave him a pair. Nice. And then my daughter, Lenny got a pair this morning. So I only have four pairs. But those are the two that actually have them. There is awesome. I don't know who else. I love it. All right. Well, dude, we'll let you go. But go enjoy the first day of summer here. But we'll hit you up soon because, yeah, we might have to make that deciled during the final. For sure. Boys, come out. Let's bring the sticks.

We'll get fired up. We got to do it. Depending on if it's an off day or not, you know, if it's in between games, you know, we can have a little bit more fun out there. Absolutely right. We'll figure it out. I appreciate you. I appreciate you guys having me on.

You guys are one of the best. I always appreciate it. Always, dude. Thanks for common notes. You're the best, man. Later, buddy. See, boys. Yeah.

What a set. This, dude, this has been the best free for all. Friday of all time. Incredible. Just a bunch of the friends joining in. Um, we're going along here, which I love. We're giving people a nice Friday sesh. Uh, that's okay because we have the room for a while. Oh, let's go. Let's go. I mean, I'm just saying like, yeah, let's, uh, we don't have to overkill it. Let's wrap this ep up with, God knows how long it'll take. We might be on for another three hours, but I have a special guest coming. Do you? Yeah, I do. In person. In person? Yeah.

That's exciting. Do you want to do that now or do you want to get into a free-for-all-Friday talk? They're on their way. I mean, they're free-for-all-Fri-D Friday friendly. Okay. Is this the-Ladies? Ladies and gentlemen. Oh.

Sean Bafini. Yes, dude. Wow. This is very special. I know people love to see Sean. Sit down, sir. How is everyone? Wow.

You know, I was, we were at dinner last night. I don't need this. We were at dinner last night and we were talking just some like old funny netters clips and like funny moments and I brought up the sneezing clip.

Oh yeah. Dude. That makes me laugh every time I watch it still. Do you remember what you said? No. Oh, it was like 70, 78? Yeah, 78 sneezes.

In a year. Yeah. I might have been off with that a little bit. Yeah. I stand by that. I only sneeze. There are people who are on your side still. Oh, I hope so.

I was going to say, man, the chat is buzzing for you right now. Yeah, chat's fired up for Sean. This is great. Hello, chat. I actually, I was talking about you guys last night. I went to my friend's volleyball game, and one of his teammates, I was wearing a netter's hoodie. It was cold. I had a T-Jure, and I grabbed a Nettor's hoodie, which Jack just told us not to do in the 10.

10 a.m. meeting. But one of his teammates was a Nettors fan. No, Jack. Jack Barrett was like, don't take the too many merch off the rack here. Our free merch stuff isn't for us. But the, but so I show up and he's like, wait, have we met?

And he sees him, he's like, oh, you're from Netters. And he says, I was like, are you guys like around here? Because I think I like ran over Chris or Dan while they were like rollerblading in Santa Monica. Oh, dude. I have been rollerblading recently. That would be very interesting. Wait, ran over?

Like squished? Almost squished in a car. You didn't know how close to dying you were. That's incredible. There's someone out there that thought that they almost took your life. Dude, is he, is he, so hold on, you write your friend's volleyball game. Yeah. This person was on the team.

Yeah. So you could see them, we could get this information. Was this like an organized indoor volleyball game? This gentleman's name was Chase. Okay. This is like an organized. It was the final of their league. In the world.

They came second. Beach? Beach volleyball. Yeah. Nice. So this dude is nasty volleyball and he almost killed me. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Wow. Thank God he didn't. That is awesome. Should we get into some free for all Friday topics with Sean? Yes. Yeah. Oh, for sure.

Yeah. So you go around, I've got a bunch of stuff we can go. I mean, we could be here for another hour with all the shit I have. So you guys start and then we'll see if we get them on. I mean, I kind of want to do all of evidence. Oh, okay. All right. Well, this is a quick one.

I know Sean would have an opinion on this. I was at the movies the other day seeing obsession. Oh, sick. I want to see that. Two guys next to me came in sitting right next to me, youngish guys. I would say like 23 to 27. And the trailers are on and they've got on their phone playing a boxing match while they're there. And I'm thinking, okay, I'm about to say something, but the trailers are on.

So like, let's see if they turn it off when the movie starts. The movie starts and instead of turning their phone off, they just kind of like, put it like closer and I'm like we're in a movie theater this is not second screen like we need some kind of like button you can call like at an airline

for like an attendant to come and then you just fucking point because I don't want to get into a fight because then it ruins the movie for me I miss stuff. I just want a little button and it's like ding and they come in and they look around and we can all kind of go these assholes and they fucking eject them because removing phones isn't going to work people can hide phones

yeah instead of having like the minimal wage teenager have to come and handle this I think that the button should just activate like an ejector seat what if you so we're saying do we need a snitch button in the movie theater

well that's what I was gonna say do you feel like I actually hear Sean that like you don't want to have this like 16 year old have to come and reprimand someone yeah and then have to get into an argument because Evan didn't want to but but the anxiety

I feel you with that button left every time I'm the kind of guy that will I usually do tell people to get up your phone. I've done it a few times where I've had to get up and say, and I don't make a scene out of it, but I'm just like, hey, you mind? Because to you, it's like not a big deal, but to everyone in the 200 seats behind you,

it's like a flashlight. Yeah, it is when you got stadium seating and you pull out your phone, if there are people behind you, you're ruin in their whole day. Because what bothers me about it is the only reason you should be doing that is if you have an obscene amount of money

on the result of this boxing match, that's why you're like, I feel the need to watch this in the movie. Yeah. But if you have that that much, I'm like, why do you go to a movie? Why are you doing? Like, oh, my God. I like the idea of maybe we put, like, there's a, you can, have you ever been on a plane? No.

Yeah. I didn't think so. He took a boat here from Ireland. So it's like, it's crazy, dude. They fly, like, anywhere. Have you ever been on a plane that has the, you can, like, message different seats? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Would they be cool if you could you could like

pull up a little panel and like an Xbox live party chat fuck you pal just sick everyone in the theater on this guy the guy in C-17

is a piece of shit let him know comment section on the movie I would be fucking rattled it's like on the screen besides you have the rolling comments coming in

like all of a sudden everyone's roasting C-17 and he's like what the fuck did I do dude I would be rattled though if I was like hey C-17 sorry

everyone can kind of see your phone. Yeah. Like could you, you know, once the trailers are over, could you just stop? If he responded like, no, fuck you, I would be terrified. Yeah, that'd be scary.

But what's funny is, I'm being like, let's get people off their screens. All this is is everyone having a screen. But I was actually thinking, like, what if you could like send a little shock, like a buzz shock to the seat? A little vibration.

Yeah, yeah. It's like, don't people pay extra for that? Yeah, that's 40X. All of a sudden, he's texting way more. He's like, this is great. Dude, I was once, I went to a movie once. this is like back when I was an exec. And I was like, I went, I had to go see a movie for like research.

I went in the middle of the day. I go into this movie theater. Again, it's like a Wednesday at two. So I'm like working. No one is in the theater. It's amazing. I have the theater to myself. And one woman walks in and she sits two seats away from me. There's two of us in the entire theater. And granted, listen, you go on and you buy your seat. Yeah, yeah. But I, like, she walked in and I was immediately, like, Jesus Christ. So I'm answering emails because it's a work day, and I'm like, there's two of us in here. And she looks over and means, she's, excuse me, could you put your phone away? And I was like, are you kidding? My initial thought was like, just go, sit away from me. But I was like, you know what?

She's right. We're in a movie theater. And I was like, yes, absolutely. So I got up and I left and I went to the row behind her because I was like, I'm going to keep sending emails because I'm working. Yeah. The whole movie, she's going like, this.

I'm like checking to see if I'm still on my phone and I'm like, what's happening here, dude? Like, I'm not bothering you at all. It was crazy. She just goes screen to screen just to find that. It was crazy. She was like actively being like, I'm going to try to reprimand you.

It was driving me nuts. I don't like that. You know what's funny? When I was, when I was living in Ireland, I had, it's kind of like AMC Stubbs, but it was for a chain called Cini World. It's called AMC Spuds. AMC Spuds?

AMC Spuds! Oh my God. Yes, that's what it should have been called. That's what it should have been called. That's what we got to change it. So I'd go like very regularly. I'd just like walk into the city and like go see a movie.

I'd see all sorts of random hours, random movies. It'd always cares about it. And it would be a lot of like screens. I'd be like one of like three people like no one else. There was this one other guy that did the same thing. And I used to like just I used to just freak out every time I'd see him because he would always come up and sit right next to me. And this happened like three times.

And one time he sat like when I say next to me, it was usually like two or three like seats away. But one time he sat literally right next to me in the exact same situation where it was an empty theater. And I had like, you know, armrests going everything. I'm like, no, I'm going to assert my dominance. I'm going to have, I'm going to leave the arm up. I'm going to assert my dominance here and make sure that I'm comfortable for this entire screen. He puts his hand on you over your head. He, he touched my hand with his hand. Come on. And I was like, shit, you win. Did he really? Did he touched you? So I was literally, it was like, like, like that. And he came and it was like that. And I was

like, this is your move. I know, I know this. I know this. I. I. I. I. I know this. I think this guy loves you, man. This was the start of the rom-com in his mind. Like, he was like, finally, I will, I will... You've been so closer. It's a lot creepier when you're in the rom-com. Yeah. When you're watching the rom-com is what I learned. It's not quite as fun. It's not quite as calm. It's, it's very, very intense. Um, dude, I, I actually got mugged on a plane. Is that the, I'm using that right? I got airplane seat mugged. That's correct. This fucking... Thank you, Zach. Um, this guy on a plane very recently, he absolutely dominated me. I, I, I, I, I, It was like he was, he was man spreading, he was taking the armrest, and I was, I was like, I'm going to battle for a little bit. And he, I had not, I couldn't do anything. Yeah, I was smoked. It was awful. I really don't appreciate. I mean, the airplane is a tough situation because there's just no room for everybody. It's brutal. But I feel like I'm always the, I'm like, I'll get in and I go like this. Because I'm like, okay, I'll just, I'll be nice. Because you're like a normal human. Yeah. And then the second I do this, everyone's like, oh, great, thanks.

And I'm like, oh, I thought we were going to both maybe do this. I want a guy, can I tell you this? I had a guy who I was in the window seat. He was in the middle seat. And I think he had never been on a plane before, but he was also maybe just an incredibly rude human because he literally reached across my face to take a photo out the window of the sky.

Wild work. I'm like sitting here and his hand comes in. And I'm like, dude, what are you going to look at? I've noticed recently, that's awful. I've noticed recently sometimes they, air vents are they're way higher yeah yep and like you really got to get in people's personal space to like get your yeah but you got to you got to do like what the waiters say we're like oh sorry pardon my reach yeah that's what you got to do i have a certain etiquette with planes where

i think that the the aisle seat gets the extra leg room the middle seat gets both armrests okay and in the window seat gets the that is a very democratic i think that's asleep against the wall should be the rules that's he's irish they should say that they should say that out loud yeah like this is the way this works dude you get the arreesome I had a guy, you know how there's like an under seat area in front of each of your seats? I was in the middle, but I had a guy in the aisle put his right foot in my under seat area. That's fucking crazy. I was like, that is where I would hit the ejector seat button.

I would hit the ejector seat button on that. I'd be like, are you out of your mind? This is my, cry, I, and we can, that's crazy. That is crazy. Who would do that? Yeah. That's so weird. That is wild work, folks.

It's wild. I want your next topic in a second, but I was recently, like I stuck my feet under there, and there's like a bar that, you know, like your bag hits up against. This woman in front of me

was like hooking her feet under her seat. I was like, what are you doing? And like our feet were touching. She was back down. She was like, it was very strange. He's not cramped enough for her. Oh, yeah. I was like, what are you doing?

I felt bad. I was like, sorry. But then I was like, I think that's my space. But I don't really, here's the thing. I don't know if we can talk about this because if we play video, they can't hear it, right? Oh, ooh, maybe. I mean, we'll narrate what the sound of the video is.

That is, look at the Sean Stats graphic up right now. That's incredible. Fucking, absolutely hilarious. That is. That is so good. Wow. So, yeah. You also have been flashing this one up, too.

I just, I want the chat to know. Also, the chat. The chat is going nuts. The chat is going nuts. There's way more people in here, by the way. Everybody was like, Sean's here. Oh, that's fucking special. Literally two back-to-back Olympians.

Come on. And then Sean comes in. What Olympians do? Who matters more? The best in the world of what they do? They have hot takes on the currency in Harry Potter. Yeah. Sure don't.

Sure don't. What's the next topic? Well, I wanted to show a video, but it really requires you having to, you have to hear it. We got to hear it. And I think it'd be funny for Sean to watch this too. Okay. Do you have this video? It's, um...

Yeah, give me two, that. It's, it's the, uh, the Leafs are the best. And is, have you, have you seen, seen this? Is it a, is it a, uh, YouTube video? Yeah. You can, you can put it in the chat, Zach, too, so then people can watch it on their own. Oh, that's good call. But I mean, I think, what I'm saying is, I'm sure the chat's going to hear it.

It's mostly can we hear it in the room. Oh, oh, oh. You know what I mean? Um, but maybe they have to put their headphones on. Yeah, they will, they will hear it. if the headphones are on, but we can do it this way too. All right, yeah, let's give a shot. There's two headphones up here. I can just guess.

That's true. You could, well, if you play it loud enough, headphones can... Is this a hockey? Have you guys ever seen The Leaps of the Best Music video from 1990? I don't think so. I don't think so either. Okay. This came up on my feed and I was like, wow, this is just a fucking time capsule of like the cringiest 90 shit in the world.

And hopefully they don't take us down for it. I don't think they will. Give me some time. He's, he's, let's vamp a little bit. But, yeah, like, I feel like 90s music videos were kind of like at the peak hallmark. While we, while we get this up, what was your topic?

My topic was going to be, I think that we go away from playgrounds too early in life. Like, I was on a playground as a little kid, and then then we're done. My playground era is over. And I was like, that's ass, because playgrounds are. and I definitely think they need to evolve towards me. But what was that place in Newington, like, Joker's maybe or something?

Jokers. There was this place near where we grew up that was kind of like, and we were still pretty young then, but it wasn't like a little kids playground. It was like a teenager playground where there was just like a ton of young, young teens. Yeah, I think like 13, 14, you're starting to be like, you're aging out of jokers.

Yeah, for sure, because high school you're out of it. But it was like a big kid play place. That sounds awesome. It was pretty sweet, dude. I was legitimately thinking to myself that I would have have fun because it's a workout kind of. You know, you're just like running around. I was like, dude, if there was like a literal adult playground where you could just go

and like bop around, this trampolines and whatever. That's what gyms are missing. Jims are miserable and they need to be fun. Literally, so I had this thought, I was like going to the gym sucks. But I was like, dude, if it was literally like a playpen of stuff I liked and I'd be like, oh, I'll go, I'll pay you a membership be and I will go here for an hour and run around. Dude, I was just in Joshua Tree. That is kind of an adult playground if you go like bouldering.

Yes, dude. It's not really, like, rock climbing. Like, it's not terribly dangerous, but it is, like, a giant fucking playground. Yeah. And I would have that in there. And I would sometimes think, like, if I think about a playground at our age, I'm like, that's just a bunch of things that could hurt me is what I think. Yeah.

And I, but what you're saying is like, a playground is just, when we were kids going out to recess, we were just going to the gym. Yeah. You know, like, you're like running around, like climbing up stuff. Like, the monkey bars are just like, that's just a work. like monkey bars on your like in school when you go oh yeah our we'd like a car park that was it we didn't have anything oh dude but did but did you have like four square paints on the ground at least or no no we had numbers where we had to like line up before we went back to class and it was just

a big open tarmac square area what did you do what did you do uh we we had a couple games we had a game called IRA where you had to everyone had to have a letter to make a word and then the other team like they had to chase and catch you and then basically torture you. One kid, like, spit on my face once. Yeah. Bro. Trying out my letter, I never gave up. And everyone else, everyone else on my team gave up their letter.

And I didn't. And I felt so betrayed because I definitely went through the work. Hold on, dude. So you had a secret letter. Everyone has a secret letter. And then people have to catch you. The other team has to catch you. And literally torture the letter out of you.

Torture the letter out of you. And then the fact that you called this IRA is fucking unbelievable. I don't think we had a good understanding at the time of the gravity of that. And then if the other team gets. enough letters they can make a word. They can make, does they have to make the secret word and get the secret word right? And then we had a game called Bulldogs Charge

where it was basically just like running Mosh Pit from one side of the yard to the other where like people have to try and grab you and catch you. That was kind of Red Rover for us. Yeah, Red Rover. Do you know that game? I know. Red Rover. Yeah, I think it might be the same. Red Rover was you would go

you'd have like, let's say it was us five. We'd all lock arms and we'd go Red Rover, Red Rover, send Nelson on over. And he would have to sprint at us and try to break through one of the arms. Yeah, same kind of game. Dude, that game was such a big thing. And then you eventually got to an age where the first person like dislocates their shoulder because we're getting too big for the game.

And like I feel like we all have that moment where the first Red Rover injury happens. And you're like, okay, we can't play this anymore. It got like banned in our school because if someone got fucked up. Yeah, it was banned in our school too. We still like could sneak it in every once in a while until they were And isn't it weird how like durable children are? Oh yeah. Rubber. They made a rubber. Can you imagine if you had like an eight year old that was six feet tall, they'd be unstoppable.

Like an army of those things. You know, it's actually funny. Some guy, I think it was in Jersey. No, it was overseas, which makes sense. Might have been Finland. This dude just got arrested for, he was 37 years old posing as a high schooler playing hockey. And he was murdering kids. fucking just destroying like I'm not talking putting up points he was like hitting them and like

injuring people and then someone was like is this a 37 year old man and it sure was yeah yeah and he got arrested one of my favorite jokes in cinema history was I think the movie's bench bench warmers bench warmers yeah it's like they have the baseball league and there's like one dude who's like has his own child but he's in like a child's league yeah his like ID is like written in crayon like I am 12 I think about that all the It's incredible. Yeah, that's what you. This guy was doing,

he was literally doing that. Yeah, yeah. Do we have the video? We'll see. Oh, you're just, I'm just, okay, here we go. Oh, well, we were talking about VHS's earlier. Oh, man, did you see that game last night?

Oh, yeah. I wish I could play in the end show and Stanley Cup. Yeah, I'm, I'm Gilmore today. Clark was better. He's the best. Okay, I guess I'll be Anderson or Andrew Chuck, one of those guys. Oh, did you see Potvin playing? He was wicked.

Did they kill us or didn't know? Was that just the TV? Oh, cool. We're watching Nickelodeon. Did they have some guys in the ice? Probably some young guys trying to make in the Aitchell. We'll never make it. Yeah, dude, that was like a video.

There's so much going on the TVs right now. I have no idea what's happening. this is hilarious. I'm pausing it. What the fuck? Is this what the chat is seeing right now? No, they're seeing this. Oh, they're seeing us.

All right, pause, pause. We've seen the video. We've got to get to input. Oh, they're still seeing the video. Oh, great. They're still seeing it. Yeah, you're good. Yeah, they're still seeing the video.

Evan, that, whatever you did couldn't have blown this up more. I'm so sorry. I was trying to turn the volume up so you guys could hear it. but what how do we get the TV back to normal let me transition this and I'll fix it you think oh yeah actually we have a pro here holy shit that was funny well so my point was in the in the late 80s early 90s everybody was trying to do okay here we go here we go there we go good god yeah we're back this gets better trust me there's some guys in the ice Probably some young guys trying to make in the NHL.

He'll never make it. I know. When I grew up, I wanted to play in the NHL so that end to be with the Leafs and win the Stanley Cup. That's my dream. That's the best dream. That's the best dream. Wow. Wow.

Yeah. Look. What are you guys doing? What are you going? What are you going? This is the most Canadian thing you've ever seen. Here we go. go. Then it becomes a music video.

So, Dan, can you tell me, are these players singing the song? Oh, well, I don't know what's... Well, they're coming out here. What on earth? Can you imagine getting a team to do this now? I mean, yes, I can. When I think about what media does for makes teams do. Yeah, they've got to do some, like, TikTok fans.

What team would you think would be most likely to take part? The Sharks. The sharks, you're sure. Dude, we should get the sharks are the best going. I mean, they would do it, too. That's what's funny. Like, the boys did such funny things over the holidays. All right, turn this off.

You know what? The Cains, the Cain? No, no, this is amazing. I just like, I'm sure the chat is like, what the fuck is happening right now? Actually, they love it. The Cains did the storm surge shit for a lot. Yeah, they did.

I mean, like, think about all the schedule release videos that we've, mind-blowing lyrics. I think we should do. Nettors are the best. Here's the great thing about this is like, Dude, that 90s video. That would be special. The irony in the lyrics, the Leafs are the best.

Oh, it's just crazy. I mean, I'm so. I mean, like, I don't know what that was, but it was amazing. And you know what it did remind me of? When you used to go out and play and go, I'm this player today. I forgot we used to do that. That was special. And it was competitive because you'd be like, I want it to be that guy.

Yeah. But they're like, sorry, dude, I'm that guy today. God. All right. Let's, let's Sean get back to his life. and we'll wrap this up with one more. Do we want them to get back to his life? No, I mean, no.

I want us to do this forever. How many more topics do we have? I want to do dance. I want to do yours with Sean. Wait, do you have a topic? Do I have a topic? Do you want me to have a topic? We can do,

mine's not that crazy. It's kind of a hot take. My take, my free-for-all Friday take is I think American Italian food is better than Italian food. Dude, my wife killed me for saying that. What's America? Like, then we went to an olive garden?

I'm glad you asked. No, but we do not olive garden shame here. I love the olive garden. American Italian food is just like chicken parm, for example. Doesn't exist in Italy. If you go to Italy and you try to order chicken farm, they're like, we don't do that here. They're like, what? Don't you do something funny with your chicken parm where you, like, order it without noodles?

Yes. He gets broccoli. Okay, it's just that you don't like Italian food. No, no, no, no, no. I think that might be right. I think American... Wait, dude. The only part of Italian food you like is the American part,

and then the Italian part you replace with broccoli. I only do that for health reasons. But if I'm in Italy, I eat the pasta because it's great good pasta over there. But, oh, wait, but hang on a second. Hold on. Better over here. Yeah. We're getting off topic.

His argument's falling apart. American Italian food just adds great. stuff. Like, it's all, it's, like, here you go. Here's Italian food. And, and we went, okay, what if we also parmesan to that chicken? Yeah. We just like add, we add cheese to shit. I got to tell you, my, so when I came to L.A., the only Italian food I was used to was American Italian food. And the reason is, is in Steubenville, Ohio, where I grew up, a lot of Italian immigrants moved there in the early 1900s. And they started making all these restaurants. There was one called Naples and it's like, you know, the red checker fucking thing. Oh yeah. The chicken parm is great.

Spaghetti with meat sauce, all that stuff. Yeah. And I like loved it. And my wife's like, we got to go to Italy and you need to have the actual Italian food. And there's a lot more fish in Italy. A lot like, there's a lot more. True. Especially depending where you go. Yeah, not as much red sauce unless you get to the southern end. But like, I agree with you that my heart wants that stuff. Yeah. But it's like, I think an Italian person would smack me in the face. I correct. And I, and I would get smacked in the face for this take, but like, what I'm saying is American Italian food is all the Italian food. It's fucking great. But we just add some other stuff. And I'm like, it's great. Is that just chicken parham though? Is that the only thing? No, like, there's a lot of

stuff that we put more cheese on and like, oh, uh, I said the, like, Fettuccini Alfredo. Like Alfredo sauce is not Italian. Oh, really? They're like, what the fuck is that? Interesting. That is, okay. When people say Americans have no culture. We have the culture. It's called, it's called. It's called theft. Yeah, it's death. We'll take it. We'll make it a little bit more fun. It's called Alfredo, dude. If we invented Alfredo, then we're the goat. I didn't realize we invented that.

I think that the American philosophy with food is that more is more, and there's oftentimes just like more stuff added. Yeah. I think maybe the European philosophy is about the quality of produce. Yeah, the ingredients. Which is decidedly better. Well, it's like, not tasting. I think that it's like when you've spent your whole life at like volume 11,

and now you have to tone it down to volume. down to volume five to get the subtleties of it. I can't hear you. You can't hear it. You can't hear it. I got one for you. Like, you know how I keep reading news articles that are like, the Mediterranean diet is the diet that will make you live longer.

So I extrapolated to like Mediterranean, Italian pizza, spaghetti. And I'm like, I'm eating Mediterranean. Why haven't you done this forever? Why aren't I living longer? Have you ever, have you ever been to fat sales? I don't think I, why would I go to a place that's named after the worst thing that can happen to me after eating their stuff? Yeah.

That's like McDonald's calling themselves type 2 diabetes. Yeah, it's honest marketing. We are gonna, I'm gonna show you the menu of fat cells after we wrap up here and you are going to be appalled what this place is. It is incredible. It is a sub shop. Yeah. Everything on the menu is what if we made a sub that you've heard of like an Italian sub and

then what if we put in chicken fingers, fries and mozzarella sticks into it? It sounds really good. It's incredible. Chris loves it. Yeah. That sounds like one of those like heart attack girl players. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly what it is. You've never been to Pittsburgh, Sean. They've got a thing called the Primani sandwich, which is like any kind of deli meat you want, coleslaw, french fries on a sandwich that's basically two thick pieces of bread. And the sandwiches are like that big. They're fucking great.

And they're perfect. What do they call this? The Primani sandwich. I love the way that some food items in the States have such like, they're like cryptoids. They're like kind of a thing where it's like, they have such a mystique behind them being like, it's not allowed in 49 states, but in this one, you go to Nebraska, they will serve it to you.

It's like Louisiana. Everything there is like horrible for you. So true. All right. Does anyone have one more topic? Yeah, Zach. All right, Zach. So, um, I think it's a big deal.

But I think watching rom-coms with your significant other has a lot of benefits to it. We talked about this yesterday. Yeah. I discussed this. I think, so I was watching 10 things I hate about you. Great movie. With the lady. Great movie.

Great movie. So much fun. And, you know, I think it gets the juices for it. I think it was Evans' anniversary recently. I was like, I think throwing out a little roncom makes a little bit better. I think it gets the juices flowing with your lady. And I think it always leads to a good night. Did you watch a rom-com on your anniversary, Evan?

No, they watched Obsession. I'm so confused. No, we did. You're right, we did, but we watched obsession. Actually? We did. And I was a little freaked out because we had plans to, you know. That is fucking insane work by you.

My wife is a horror movie writer and like loves that shit. So she like didn't bother her at all. But I was like, wow. Yeah. Wait, so did I miss hear this or Zach? Did you see a rom-com with a lady to celebrate Evans anniversary? Yeah, exactly. I understand.

Exactly what I did. Who was the lady Evan's wife? That is, bro, that is one of the best friend moves I've ever heard in my life. This could be the move. Somebody get Dolan. Celebrating your friend's anniversaries

is fucking all time, dude. And not with them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You celebrate it like Christmas. We were about to have sex and I hear a knock in the door and he's like, I brought wine. No,

no, that's what I'm saying like, it's not with you. Like, I'm going to go out to dinner with the fellas and be like this. It's Evan's anniversary. Yeah, yeah. So we're going to celebrate. Could be the fucking move, dude.

That is unbelievable. You're, first of all, I love this take by you because, like, it makes it seem like you're saying you're reinventing the wheel. This is like the most everyone, through the annals of history have done this. If you watch romantic movies, things get romantic. Yeah. I know, but this is, I tell you, I have not, I have not thought about this before, but a lot of movie dates been on, been out, been out all around. I usually was going to Harvey because you're taking advice from Evan and taking them to obsession. be like soft boards out right now

you want to go but I was when a generation grows up without comedies Dude this is what I was about to say Yeah it's not his call It's his generation The rom-com Disappealed the quality rom-com

Disappeared Because, and I'm not even faulting them But streamers found out We could just make super cheap Horrible rom-coms And everyone's like whatever I don't care And just watch it

So they're winning Because they're like Yeah the views We get a trillion views on this But we really lost The art quality And his TV too I mean you see it

It looks at the TV good stuff kids movies like i think sheep detective is i right now for a really good good have you seen it i need to see john you're going to fucking it's got amazing no no it's it's it's amazing it's amazing i i saw the i saw the poster for it off of like the i five or something yeah and i freaked out i was like that that that's a movie for me i love that it's unbelievable and then i i i don't want to see it with you i told my friends and they were like what that sounds like the lamest thing oh no it's amazing i've been trying to be like no but it's like see the trailer there's like Hugh Jackman's like a farmer and there's like

he guys died and then you're like Sir Patrick Stewart voices one of the sheep yeah it's incredible the lineup is incredible oh yeah it's unbelievable yeah it's I mean dude Craig Mason wrote it's fucking fantastic you go go tonight like legitimately actually will I just got my AMC Stubbs back so come on dude yeah did you get suspended for some reason yeah you know I can't get into it no I I cancelled it after I went

almost a full year without seeing a film because I busy working on empty netters. Correct. And then... 30 million views. 30 million views and how many episodes was there? You think you get 30 million views?

You think you get 30 million views by going to the movies, dude? Yeah. You sure don't. You know what I was watching? What I was watching for romantic incentive was empty netters episodes. Yeah.

Yeah, actually. Correct. Right. Wait. By the way, these stats are completely made up. No, no, no, no. They're actually quite low. They're quite low.

It was conservative numbers. Dude, the... So, Zach, do not go on a date night and watch Schindler's list. Yes, correct. I'm aware of that. But I think what I need you to know is we got into this yesterday. Rom-coms are incredible, dude.

Like the good, yes. Look at some of the TV that has just come out on some of these streamers and movies. Like, sometimes they are shit. And they're just like rinse and repeat, smut, go watch it, whatever. But like, a good rom-com, they're some of the best movies that exist. Yeah. a big wreck for you. Okay. It's called They Came Together. Have you seen

they came together? Yeah. Dude, that... It completely makes fun of all the rom-com. Did you ever watch Stella? Yeah. Those guys are out of their minds. I met David Wayne once. Super nice guy. Very fun. But like... They're mental. They're so fucking funny. It's unbelievable. Yeah, go see they came together.

The chat is buzzing with amazing rom-com recommendations. There you go. Yeah. You're about to give me so late. Because Zach... I feel like you're... I feel like you're learning this far earlier in life than I learned this, whereas there's a whole genre of film that a lot of young guys skip out on because they think it's not worth their time.

And there's some amazing flicks in there. It's true. Also, fun fact, wedding crashes is a rom-com. Yes, absolutely. But it's a comedy to me. It's a funny movie ever made. That most people think it's comedy ever made and it's a rom-com. Wedding Crashers is a rom-com.

Greatest rom-com of all time. just on the tip of my tongue I think I'm going to go with love actually I love that Heaven Oh Jesus Come back to me I got a thing Chris

Zach's never seen any so I know Oh actually I want to change mine Okay I really like when Harry met Sally That's the answer That is probably the answer When Harry Met Sally is like a genuinely perfect movie

It's incredible It's great About time though it's great I know but I don't know about no about times a rom-com yeah it is but it's it has too

so much yeah it's very yeah it's very hard calm of it um I like nodding hill a lot love nodding that one's

I don't know it was a classic answer but I just and it's the reason that he wrote it even said Kurt Richard Hurt said this but he was like the wish fulfillment of like

what if a smoke movie star stumbled into me and was like I love him and then that's what happens so you just watch and you're like the readers of horse and hound we'll be delighted.

I got one. This is a raunchy one, but there's something about Mary. I think is a rom-com, even though it's very raunchy. Absolutely. It's a rom-com. It's a fucking great movie.

Brett Farv shows up in that movie. It's unbelievable. Zach, you'd love him. Brett Favra? What about Brett Favra? Guys, there's a spider literally just coming down. Oh, he's dropping down. What the fuck?

He's trying to say his favorite rom-com is Spider-Man. I don't see this spider. Oh, there he is. Oh, shit. Oh, my God. All right. We got to wrap this up and get into our day. We've got some guests coming through

that we're going to hang out with if you don't know of the breadbasket boys. They're coming to the office. We're going to do some fun stuff. Does anyone have any closing thoughts as we wrap up? Sean, this was delightful.

This is great. Thanks for popping on. No problem. Do you want me to step away? Oh, that spider's coming down real close to your foot. Yeah, it is. Dude, this is how you get your superpower.

Dude, we... This is very much a Peter Parker moment for me. That was awesome. Is he dead? Did he come from the fucking ceiling? Did spider just die? I think that spider's died. Oh, no, he's still alive.

He's alive. Okay. We're good. We're going to be back at it again soon. Yeah, Sean. Are you going to kill the spider? Oh, dude, I was like, oh, nice. Whoa, we're going to zoom in on the spider?

Get the folks there. Oh, yeah. Oh, he's moving. Right there. There it is. There's the spider, folks. You can see him move. Come here, buddy.

Don't scare him, Dan. He's going to find Zendaya. Wow. Very good. Very good. Yeah, fun, fun news for the fans. Sean's back soon. Yeah, we are going to be back at it soon.

You're going to be getting some Sean content. I was like, we got a nice crotch shot of me right now. This is great. But yeah, we're going to be jumping into Love Island with Sean very soon. Holy shit. That doesn't mean we're going on Love Island, but who knows. That would be, we should do our own. Could you imagine?

Dude, we should. And it's just us. It's just us. We film it every night. 52 episodes. And we do, we hang out. That's a great pitch for the bosses. Guys, send us to Bora Bora.

Yeah. It'll be fucking great. Yeah, it'll be fucking great. Oh, all right. Well, that's it, folks. Great free for all Friday episode. Incredible. We've got to start talking about hockey.

Way less. Yeah. Can we do a shout out to the chat? We are two hours and 21 minutes in. Yeah. And there's been two hundred people. The chat in with gas. Everybody's been here the whole time.

It's been amazing. Thank you. Love you, chat. We'll see you next time. Thank you.